Grab is a hugely hailing company that has developed a Super App comprising multiple divisions that facilitate the people of South-East Asian countries. Grab solves the most complex problems of Southeast Asia.

A study suggests that the global market of super apps is visualized to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 27.8% from 2023 to 2030 to reach 426.01 billion US Dollars by 2030, making the super app business a giant one.

Grab Business Model

What is Grab?

Grab is a super app that provides people with various services including Grab Car, Bike, Hitch (car pool), Express, Chat, Pay and many more. The initial nurturing of idea was modeled as car hailing app named MyTeski which was launched in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

Grab has turned out to become the first decacorn of the Southeast Asian countries by capitalizing revenue more than 10 billion dollars. Grab is currently functioning in 8 different Southeast Asian countries including – Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Ideology of Grab

The company strongly believes on certain values and follows them. This includes their 4H operating principle stating – Heart, Hunger, Honour and Humility. These principles help them guide and make decisions to create empowering solutions and ideas for the people of Southeast Asia.

Related: Porter Business Model – How it makes money?

History of Grab

The idea of the business was proposed by Anthony Tan in 2012. Grab has captured every tip of the iceberg right from 2012 till date. Over years along the development of business, Tan Hooi Ling joined and co-founded Grab. The baby steps of Grab happened to receive funding from Harvard Business School. Initially named as My Teski, then got renamed as Grab Taxi and was launched in Singapore as well. Grab ought to become one of the first unicorn companies in the country.

Within the span of three years, from 2013 to 2016, Grab received investments and partnerships from various millionaire companies and huge investors. The momentum wheel begins when Grab got 10 Million US Dollars in April and 15 Million US Dollars in May of 2014.

Furthermore, after the summer it received 65 Million US Dollars and a huge sum of quarter of a billion(250 Million US Dollars) from the one of the largest investors, Softbank, a Japanese multinational investment holding company. In August 2015, Grab received 350 Million US Dollars from DiDi, the Chinese car hailing company.

Following this, for car ride hailing app, there was partnerships made with mega automobile companies such as Honda and Toyota. Later in the year 2018, a settlement was made with Uber following up with its egress. The company kept growing with receiving micro investments from various companies. Grab is now publicly traded on NASDAQ from 2021, following the largest SPAC market at the time

– Merger with Uber:

This settlement with its competitor Uber happened in 2018 and marked the departure of Uber from South- East Asian countries. The merging settlement included to provide Uber with 28% share of Grab, a board member seat for the CEO of Uber, currently Dara Khosrowshahi and a redemption right of 2 Billion US dollars.

Costumer Types in Grab:

B2B(Business to Business):

B2B business type in Grab includes Grab Ads (2018), turned out to be a business promoting ad program which enables merchants to popularize their brands in one of the many streamline marketing campaigns of Grab.

Grab Defence (2019), enables to protect mobile business from fraud and ensures frictionless experience for the customers.
Grab Merchant (2020), this portal allows people interested in developing businesses and becoming merchants in various fields including GrabFood, GrabMart, GrabAds and GrabPay.

Grab Maps (2022) is a map platform similar to that of Google Maps, specifically designed to cope with the complex routes, roads and traffic conditions of South East Asia.

Grab Mobility, allows daily commuters to use various facilities including car, bike and carpooling services with high quality and hygiene.

Related: Zepto Business Model – How it works?

B2C(Business to Consumer):

B2C business type in Grab includes Grab Pay (2016), a model similar to Google Pay that enables users to access a mobile payment platform and facilitate cashless E-wallet system.

Grab Food (2018) is a food delivery app that delivers edibles from a variety of restaurants and eateries.

Grab Academy allows the connectors of Grab, (i.e.) merchants including drivers and partners to acquire the necessary knowledge to progress in the career along with Grab.

Grab Express (2018) – logistics delivery service: was launched as a courier service with real time tracking (live GPS tracking) and faster and safer delivery

Grab FinTech (2018), the financial venture of the company. This service offers people with insurance, financial servicing and payments on the financial platform.

How to use Grab app?

For the drivers:

It starts when the driver joins and sets up the Grab app and launching it. Once done, the driver begins to receive passenger booking from nearby.

Then, the driver accepts the booking and proceeds further.

The driver then picks up the customer and drops off at the desired destination and collects the fare of the ride.

For the customers(user):

  • The users are required to download the Grab app from Google Play store or the App store.
  • The users register with the details onto the app.
  • Then, they enter the pick-up and drop off location on the map and waits for the booking of the ride.
  • The user selects ‘JustGrab’ and enjoys the ride with the specified fare for the trip.

Revenue model of Grab:

Commission-based model is utilized by Grab. The Grab ride follows the principle of sharing the fare of the ride by having some to the company and the remaining reaches the driver. Grab has around 2.8 Million drivers as partners and has received 6 Million daily rides overall. The commission charge is around 16% to 25% of the ride fare and the rest is paid to the driver.

Future plans of Grab:

Grab has planned to establish digital bank facilities in Malaysia and Indonesia in the second half of 2024.
It also aims at creating many more income and business opportunities for all partners of the company.
To support in improving digital inclusion and literacy in Southeast Asia.
To utilize technology for good and support the 16% of ASEAN youth willing to build themselves and work in the technological sector in the future.
Grab has also planned on expanding its services to many other countries in the following years.

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

Q) What is the valuation of Grab?
As of 2024, the market cap value of Grab is 13.18 Billion US Dollars and ranks world’s 128th most valuable company.

Q) Who are the competitors of Grab? How does Grab differentiate from them?
Grab’s competitors are Uber, Gojek, FastGo and Ryde. Grab differentiates itself by providing a variety of services and launching out as a super app. It grabs the attention of people by being economic, fast and convenient.

Q) What does Grab company do?
Grab is basically a super app that provides people with a variety of series including food delivery, ride hailing, packing services, financial aids and many more.

Conclusion

Grab is a company that initially started as a taxi-hailing app and now it provides multiple on–demand services under a single roof. Grab has launched out the super app providing all the mentioned facilities and services to the people.

Grab has reached heights in the arena within a short span of time. Building a business and app just like that of Grab is now simple with the help of Smarther.

Smarther is one of the top app developing companies in Chennai. We develop a variety of apps including – Android app, IOS app and Flutter apps. Smarther is rated as one of the most trusted mobile app development company in Chennai, feel free to contact us if you are on a search to develop a app like Grab.

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