Uber rival Grab acquires Indian startup to bulk up its mobile payment platform

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Grab, Uber’s main rival in Southeast Asia, is continuing to develop its mobile payment strategy after it announced the acquisition of India-based startup iKaaz.

The deal — which is undisclosed — will see iKaaz’s engineering team join the Bangalore-based engineering office which Grab opened last year. The firm declined to say how many new recruits are moving over from iKaaz, but a spokesperson disclosed that Grab currently has 75 engineers in Bangalore with plans to grow the number to 200 before this year.

Grab also has engineering teams in Singapore, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Beijing and Seattle. The company claims it is Southeast Asia’s top ride-hailing app with more 70 million downloads.

Southeast Asia has a cumulative population of more than 600 million consumers. Ride-hailing in the region is predicted to grow into a $20.1 billion per year industry by 2025 up from $5.1 billion in 2017, according to a report co-authored by Google.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Magill.

Source: TechCrunch (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance, Technology
Tags
digital payments, startups