Grab's ride from Harvard project to $54.6b US listing
South-east Asian ride-hailing and food delivery platform Grab Holdings debuts on Thursday (Dec 2) on Nasdaq via the world's largest special purpose acquisition company (Spac) deal worth US$40 billion (S$54.6 billion).
Here are some milestones for the Singapore-headquartered company:
2011: Anthony Tan and co-founder Tan Hooi Ling create Grab in a Harvard Business School venture competition plan
2012: Launches as MyTeksi taxi booking service in Malaysia
2013: Expands to the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore as GrabTaxi
April 2014: Announces Series A funding
June 2014: Launches in Indonesia
December 2014: Japan's SoftBank invests US$250 million in a funding round
August 2015: Becomes a unicorn after US$350 million funding round
December 2015: Announces a strategic partnership with other ride-hailing companies Ola, Didi, and Lyft that competed against Uber
January 2016: Rebrands to Grab from GrabTaxi to reflect expanding services
November 2017: Launches GrabPay payments service for third-party transactions
March 2018: Announces acquisition of Uber's business in South-east Asia through an all-share deal, Uber becomes a strategic shareholder
May 2018: Pilots GrabFood delivery service
July 2018: Unveils "superapp" strategy that provides a range of services under one platform
March 2019: Reaches valuation of about US$14 billion
December 2020: Wins digital full bank licence in Singapore in a partnership with Singtel
April 2021: Agrees to list on Nasdaq through a merger with Spac Altimeter Growth Corp securing a valuation of nearly US$40 billion
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