Singapore's Grab Taxi Holdings Pte Ltd., an online ride sharing service in Southeast Asia, has raised $350 million from private placements.
Reuters reported that this is Grab Taxi's largest fundraising to date as it managed to attract several large institutional investors. It added that the company has raised $700 million in total, but did not include the estimated valuation of GrabTaxi after the current investment round
VentureBeat said in a separate report that GrabTaxi was able to get funds from U.S. investment firm Coatue, China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation (CIC), and Didi Kuaidi, an e-taxi company based in China that competes with the ride sharing service of U.S.'s Uber Technologies Inc . Those companies join Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank Corp and a unit of Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings as shareholders of the company.
Anthony Tan, GrabTaxi's founder and chief executive, was quoted by VentureBeat saying the investments were a vote of confidence on the company's success in Southeast Asia and the growth potential of the region.
"GrabTaxi is at the forefront of the startup industry in Southeast Asia and it is a mantle we carry proudly," Tan said.
Both reports did not say how GrabTaxi plans to use the additional funds, but Venturebeat noted that the company has a more diverse service than when it started in 2012.
The report said that while the Singapore-based GrabTaxi's service started with cabs, it has steadily introduced new services that use other vehicles such as public cars and motorbikes to adjust to the traffic conditions and income levels in the areas it operates. Venturebeat added that GrabTaxi is is now available in 26 cities across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, with 110,000 drivers in these areas.
The report noted that the $700 million has raised so far is smaller than Uber's $7billion or Didi's $3.5 billion, but provides GrabTaxi ample cash and shows that investors recognize the value its service provides to customers in Southeast Asia, where hailing cabs is often difficult.
