Grab was founded in June 2012 by Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling, who were classmates at Harvard Business School. The company was originally called MyTeksi and launched as a taxi-booking app in Malaysia. The founders identified that Southeast Asia's fragmented and unreliable taxi market represented a significant opportunity for a technology-enabled transportation platform.
The company rebranded as GrabTaxi in 2013 and expanded beyond Malaysia, launching in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The company's growth was rapid, driven by the region's large population, growing smartphone penetration, and underserved transportation market.
In 2014, Grab raised $15 million from SoftBank, marking the beginning of a long-term relationship with the Japanese technology conglomerate. SoftBank would go on to invest billions of dollars in Grab over the following years.
Grab rebranded as Grab in 2016, reflecting its expansion beyond taxi-hailing into private car services, motorcycles, and other transportation modes. The company also began expanding into adjacent services, launching GrabPay (digital payments) and GrabFood (food delivery).
In 2018, Uber Technologies sold its Southeast Asian operations to Grab in exchange for a stake in Grab. The deal gave Grab a dominant position in Southeast Asian ride-hailing and removed its primary competitor from the market. Uber received approximately 27.5% of Grab as consideration for the transaction.
Following the Uber deal, Grab accelerated its expansion into financial services, launching GrabFinancial Group to offer digital payments, lending, and insurance products. The company also expanded its delivery services, launching GrabMart for grocery delivery and GrabExpress for parcel delivery.
In 2019, Grab received a digital banking license in Singapore, allowing it to offer banking services through its Digibank subsidiary.
Grab went public through a SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth Corp. in December 2021, listing on NASDAQ under ticker GRAB. The transaction valued Grab at approximately $40 billion, making it one of the largest SPAC mergers in history at the time.
Following its public listing, Grab focused on improving profitability, reducing costs, and growing its financial services business. The company achieved its first full year of adjusted EBITDA profitability in FY2024.
In FY2024, Grab reported revenue of approximately $2.8 billion, up 19% year-over-year, driven by growth across its deliveries, mobility, and financial services segments.