Tag: Grave

Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery giant Grab announced a definitive agreement to make a strategic investment in German remote driving technology provider Vay Technology GmbH. The investment will be implemented in two phases: Grab will initially invest $6000 million in cash, with the transaction expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, acquiring a minority stake in Vay. Furthermore, if Vay achieves agreed-upon financial and operational milestones within the first year after the closing, Grab will invest an additional $3.5 million, subject to regulatory approval, potentially becoming Vay's largest shareholder. This move not only provides funding for Vay's expansion in the US market but also demonstrates Grab's focus on Vay's unique "driver-vehicle separation" operating model and the vast amount of driving data collected by its fleet, thereby accelerating Grab's own long-term autonomous driving and AI model training strategy. Vay's "Vehicle-Driver Separation" Car Rental Model: Remote Delivery, User Self-Drive. Vay's business model is not a Robotaxi (robot taxi), but rather a more cost-effective "on-demand car rental" service that falls between traditional car rental and ride-hailing services. Its operation process is as follows: • User Booking: Users book an electric vehicle through the Vay App. • Remote Delivery: A "teledriver" in a control center remotely drives the vehicle to the user's designated location via camera and low-latency connection. • User Self-Drive: Upon arrival, the teledriver disconnects, and the user takes over the vehicle and drives it like a regular car. • Remote Return: After arriving at the destination, the user can simply get out and leave; the remote driver takes over again and drives away, saving the user the hassle of finding a parking space. ...

Following the entry of online ride-hailing services like Uber into the Taiwan market, Bolt, which also offers online ride-hailing in Europe and even additional services such as shared scooters, electric-assisted bicycles, and food delivery, is reportedly preparing to enter the Taiwanese market. Formerly known as Taxify, Bolt was founded on August 3, 2013, by Markus Villig and is headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. It initially focused on making it easier to book taxis in Tallinn and Riga through an online platform, and expanded its services to more European markets starting in 2014. After rebranding as Bolt in 2019, it further launched the food and grocery delivery service Bolt Food, and in May 2021 added the car-sharing service Bolt Drive. Other services include shared electric scooters and electric-assisted bicycles for short-distance travel. Bolt is currently recruiting in Taiwan, seeking a Taiwan Regional Manager to assist in the local rollout of its online ride-hailing service and to facilitate communication with local regulatory bodies and government agencies. The company also plans to establish a local team in Taiwan and will work closely with its headquarters team. However, it is not yet confirmed whether Bolt plans to introduce more services to the Taiwan market besides its online ride-hailing service. Taiwan already has online ride-hailing services such as Uber, LINE Taxi, and 55688. Grab, Southeast Asia's largest online ride-hailing service, has already set up an office in Taipei 101, but currently has no plans to introduce its service to the Taiwan market.

Grab, which has become a super app in Southeast Asia by integrating online ride-hailing, food delivery, and digital finance services, stated that it will continue to collaborate with Zoom on various solutions and optimize employee collaboration and interaction through Zoom's services. Leveraging Zoom Rooms, Zoom Events, Zoom Meetings, and Zoom Seminars, Grab is creating a more flexible hybrid work environment through Zoom's services, enabling employees in offices across Southeast Asia, Seattle (USA), Bangalore (India), and Cluj-Napoca (Romania) to collaborate more effectively. In addition to using Zoom's virtual whiteboard, Grab has deployed Zoom Rooms in 400 meeting rooms, allowing employees to work in a hybrid collaborative manner. Grab also utilizes Zoom Events and Zoom Mesh to host internal employee meetings, ensuring the company can securely conduct large-scale online corporate events through their stable and secure services. Furthermore, Grab communicates online with hybrid teams, partners, and customers through Zoom Meetings and Seminars, has implemented Zoom for Workspace Reservation, and utilizes the conversational intelligence software Zoom IQ for Sales to enhance the professional skills of Grab For Business account managers. Adam Seyer, Engineering Director at Grabber Technology Solutions, Grab's internal technology team focused on improving workflows, stated, "For Grab, building a collaborative and continuously growing work culture is crucial, and this requires providing employees with the right technology and resources. Zoom's integration across multiple application scenarios will help Grab's teams throughout Southeast Asia and other regions collaborate smoothly and efficiently." Ricky Kapur, Head of Zoom Asia Pacific, said, "Southeast Asia is a cradle of research and innovation, with companies like Grab driving economic growth. As a company focused on empowering innovation, Zoom is delighted to support Grab's growth in the Southeast Asian market through our platform solutions. Zoom is committed to providing users with a reliable and secure collaboration platform, laying a solid foundation for improving employee and customer experiences. We look forward to continuing to help more businesses achieve growth and innovation in Southeast Asia."

Grab, which dominates the ride-hailing and delivery market in Southeast Asia, recently announced the launch of its own map service, GrabMaps, and location services. It will also continue to refine map information in various regions through its partner drivers and fleet using photographic equipment, with full operation expected in the third quarter of this year. According to Grab, building its own map service not only frees it from its previous reliance on map data providers like HERE, but also allows it to further penetrate the $1 billion map data market in Southeast Asia, creating more commercial services and driving greater market opportunities. Besides Indonesia, Grab's own map service will cover seven markets: Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Singapore, with plans to achieve self-sufficiency in map services by the third quarter of this year. However, Grab stated that it will continue to use the open-source licensed OpenStreetMap map service to supplement or enhance the GrabMaps user experience. Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling stated that urban roads in Southeast Asia often differ from those in other countries and regions. Some hidden paths and narrow alleys not shown on general maps are often only known to local drivers and delivery personnel. Therefore, she believed that to further improve services, it was essential to develop a proprietary map service. Thus, starting in 2017, Grab began investing in building its own map service to address the shortcomings of most maps in accurately reflecting the road details of most Southeast Asian cities. Data shows that GrabMaps processes over 800 billion requests monthly, with significantly higher execution efficiency than many general map systems, a 4x lower error rate, and a 10x lower latency. Grab plans to release the GrabMaps API in the third quarter of this year and plans to launch software development tools in 2023, allowing more businesses to integrate GrabMaps into their applications. As for map-related data, it is mainly obtained through Grab's partner drivers or delivery personnel who report street names, attraction information, traffic signs, and other data during their services. Incentives are offered to encourage more partner drivers to provide data, thereby improving the accuracy of GrabMaps map information and accelerating data updates. Meanwhile, the KartaCam cameras used by partner drivers and delivery personnel record location, road, traffic, and street view data. In addition to continuously collecting map information in various cities in Southeast Asia, GrabMaps is currently being tested in collaboration with companies in Paris, Johannesburg, Dubai, and Seattle, suggesting that GrabMaps may expand to more countries and regions in the future.

Just as Grab finalized its plan to list on the Nasdaq through a shell company acquisition, Gojek, another Southeast Asian ride-hailing app that was rumored to be in merger talks with Grab last year, appears to be preparing to merge with Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia to form a new company with a market capitalization of $180 billion. The merged company will be called "GoTo" (pronounced "Go to"), and the transaction could be completed as early as this month. The new company will have a top management team comprised of two senior executives from Gojek and two from Tokopedia, including Gojek co-CEOs Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi, and Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya and President Patrick Cao. GoTo will continue to offer online ride-hailing, e-commerce, food delivery, online payments, and the core services previously provided by Gojek and Tokopedia. Gojek, with a market capitalization of $105 billion, will hold approximately 60% of the new company. GoTo will also continue to compete with Grab and Shopee in the e-commerce market. However, neither Gojek nor Tokopedia has responded to this rumor so far.

Grab, which currently dominates the ride-hailing and delivery service market in Southeast Asia, is confirmed to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange through a merger with Altimeter Growth Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). With Grab currently valued at $396 billion, this will be the largest shell company merger and IPO to date. In this transaction, Grab will receive $45 billion in cash, including $40 billion in private equity investment managed by BlackRock Investment Management, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global, and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Grab planned a US IPO, which would become the largest overseas IPO by a Southeast Asian company. Grab has already received investments from companies including Microsoft, SoftBank, and Kymco, and its market capitalization had grown to $160 billion by 2012. It has since expanded from its original ride-hailing service to food and goods delivery, and even entered the online financial services market, obtaining a pure online banking license in Singapore. Its operations span across Southeast Asia, including its original home country of Malaysia, as well as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Although there were reports last year of merger talks with competitor Gojek, the deal apparently fell through, prompting Grab to plan a US IPO.

Grab, which previously took over Uber's Southeast Asian operations and received investments from companies including Microsoft, SoftBank, and Kymco, now dominates the Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery market. It is rumored that Grab may list on the US stock exchange this year. Sources indicate that Grab expects to raise $20 billion through its US listing, which is expected to be the largest overseas IPO by a Southeast Asian company. However, Grab has not yet determined the expected share offering size or the planned listing date, and has declined to comment on the news. Grab has already received investments from companies including Microsoft, SoftBank, and Kymco, and its market capitalization had already grown to $160 billion by 2012. It has since expanded from its original ride-hailing service to food and goods delivery, and even entered the online financial services market, obtaining a pure online banking license in Singapore. Its operations span the Southeast Asian market, including its original home in Malaysia, as well as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Although there were reports of merger talks with competitor Gojek last year, the deal apparently fell through, prompting Grab to plan its US listing. Gojek is reportedly in talks to merge with Indonesian e-commerce company Tokopedia. If the merger goes smoothly, it could create a company with a market value of up to $180 billion, and may also choose to list on both the Jakarta Stock Exchange in Indonesia and the United States.

Reports indicate that Grab, which previously took over Uber's Southeast Asian operations and received investments from companies including Microsoft, SoftBank, and Kymco, may merge with Gojek, another ride-hailing app in Southeast Asia. Just as Grab confirmed earlier that it had secured a total of $856 million in funding from Japanese companies including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Toyo Information Systems (TIS), TechCrunch sources revealed that Grab and Gojek, competitors in the Southeast Asian market, held further talks in early February, potentially preparing to discuss a merger. Founded in Malaysia in June 2012, Grab has already received funding from Softbank, Didi, Uber, Microsoft, Tiger Global, Temasek Holdings, and others. By November of last year, Grab had accumulated over $91 billion in funding. Earlier, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group invested $700 million, and Toyo Information Systems invested $156 million, demonstrating the market's strong confidence in Grab's growth potential. Gojek, founded in Indonesia in 2010, had raised a total of $33 billion in funding by mid-2019 and continues to receive investment from companies including JD.com, Tencent, Google, Sequoia Capital India, and Samsung. In terms of service coverage, Grab's acquisition of Uber's Southeast Asian operations in 2018 expanded its service to include Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Gojek's current service covers Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, making it a direct competitor to Grab. Regarding services, Grab offers booking services for motorcycles, private cars, and taxis, and additionally provides mobile payments, food delivery, freight forwarding, and even insurance. Gojek similarly offers booking services for various vehicle types, as well as mobile payments, food delivery, and freight services, making its service offerings almost identical to Grab's. In the face of market competition, both companies have adopted a strategy of high subsidies to attract drivers to provide services. While this has successfully driven a large number of bookings, it has also resulted in significant losses. Therefore, during the merger negotiations, the two companies may consider adjusting the original subsidy plan and expanding into other business areas to ensure the healthy development of their businesses. However, no specific consensus has been reached between the two companies at present.

Grab, which officially took over Uber's Southeast Asian business this year and received investments from companies such as Microsoft and SoftBank, is currently raising up to $50 billion in its ongoing Series H funding round, higher than the original target of $30 billion. Companies including Toyota, Microsoft, Booking Holdings, and Yamaha have already begun investing in Grab. While the initial plan was to raise $30 billion by the end of this year, Grab later raised its fundraising target to $50 billion after SoftBank's Vision Fund planned to invest $15 billion. Grab currently serves markets in Southeast Asia including Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia, with approximately 6.5 million users. Its app has been downloaded over 1.3 million times and has completed 25 billion trips. It is now also offering food delivery services on its platform, similar to Uber Eats. Regarding revenue and profitability, although the market generally believes that Grab has not yet achieved true profitability, Grab emphasizes that its revenue to date has exceeded $10 billion and it expects to double its revenue next year. Grab has raised approximately $68 billion in funding to date, with a market valuation exceeding $110 billion, making it a highly successful startup in Southeast Asia. However, despite merging Uber's Southeast Asian operations, Grab still faces competition from rivals including Go-Jek, intensifying the competition in the app-based ride-hailing service market in the region.

Despite facing criticism for violating fair competition rules in Singapore due to its acquisition of Uber's Southeast Asian operations, Grab has still secured significant external investment. This includes a previous investment from Softbank (5M Capital) and a $10 billion investment from Toyota. More recently, it has received a partnership and technology investment from Microsoft, which is expected to provide resources for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications and support its app's ride-hailing functionality through the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Microsoft's statement indicates a collaboration with Grab in areas such as big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. This includes using image recognition to identify drivers and users, reducing the risk of impersonation, suggesting optimal pick-up locations, and allowing users unfamiliar with the area to quickly locate passengers by taking photos of street views. Microsoft services will also provide real-time translation, and passengers can request special assistance, such as luggage handling or larger vehicles. Furthermore, cloud computing, particularly deep learning applications powered by the Microsoft Azure platform, will help drivers optimize routes and provide passenger services. Other service collaborations include integration with Microsoft Outlook, allowing users to book rides online and add trips to their calendar notifications. For internal operations, Grab will leverage Microsoft Kaizala mobile services to enhance online customer service and internal communication efficiency. Microsoft also plans to further collaborate with Grab on in-car entertainment services, providing passengers with more content to watch and listen to during their rides, and even integrating advertising systems. Microsoft's points system will also be integrated with Grab's existing points service to attract long-term users. Since acquiring Uber's Southeast Asian operations, Grab has grown significantly, with operations spanning Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand. While withdrawing from the Southeast Asian market, Uber maintains its investment partnership with Grab and emphasizes the importance of coexisting and developing with more partners in the market. (Left: Grab President Ming Maa; Right: Microsoft Executive Vice President of Business Development Peggy Johnson)