Grab Ventures Is Now Official, Ready for Startup Acceleration in Southeast Asia

Grab announces Grab Ventures as an investment unit with an objective to find and build regional innovation. Some vertical industries targeted include online payments, finance, shopping, logistics, and food delivery. Previously, Grab has made some investments (and few acquisitions) in startups, one of those is Kudo in Indonesia.

One of the reasons for the developmental urgency of Grab Ventures is for O2O (Online-to-Offline) platform acceleration as Grab's business model. By partnering with related tech startups, it's considered more effective to support the business demand that keeps shifting dynamically. In the near future, Grab Ventures will start a Velocity program, it's a startup accelerator in Southeast Asia.

The accelerator program is targeting at least 10 startups to be trained in the next 24 months, includes funding and opportunity for synergy. The registration is currently open on the official site ventures.grab.com.

"Grab will play an active role to grow and develop the startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia. It's about empowerment and we invite the developing startups wanted to grow in the region to partners with Grab Ventures," Anthony Tan, Group CEO & Co-Founder Grab, said as quoted by e27.

One of the succession strategies, Grab Ventures will partner with several strategic institutions, both government and private. It started off as the debut in Singapore, where Grab Ventures has partnered with Info Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA). The same strategy will also be applied in other operational areas, including Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

Anthony Tan, in another session with CNBC, said that one thing being offered to the startups [to be trained] is an opportunity to use Grab's capabilities, include technology, network, experts, and financial support. It includes GrabPay (electronic payment platform) that currently operating in many countries. The platform is expected to be able to support operations for the startup's developing app.

He emphasized the key criteria for the selected startup is in growth-stage and willing to make the regional expansion. In terms of ownership, it will be flexible, he said. Some might be fully acquired, some will take minority ownership or others. With the current Grab valuation, Anthony Tan is confident that this will be a strategic step to help partners, customers, and startups to grow.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian