Grab, founded by Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling in 2012. Reporting from liputan6.com (1/3/2019), the idea of Grab initially appeared when Tan, who was still a student at Harvard Business School, heard his friend's complaint about a taxi service in Malaysia that often misdirected or expensive fees.
Finally, Tan tried to make this problem his college project. He presented this project in front of his teaching professor armed with the concept of ride sharing owned by Garrett Camp. Unexpectedly, this project managed to become the second winner of the Business Plan Contest at Harvard Business School and finalist at the Harvard Minimum Viable Product Funding award.
Only after that, Tan and fellow colleagues at Harvard Business School, Ling, launched the My Teksi application in Malaysia in June 2012. This application came to be known as GrabTaxi in other countries. Tan launched this Taxi Grab with a capital of 25 thousand US dollars or Rp 358 million.
However, the initial story of GrabTaxi's journey was not as smooth as that. Tan and Ling got a lot of refusal from the taxi company to work together. Until finally the fifth taxi company wanted to join GrabTaxi.
Gradually, Grab's journey began to run at a faster pace. A year later, GrabTaxi successfully entered the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand markets. Furthermore, in 2014, GrabTaxi spread its wings to Vietnam and Indonesia.
In the same year, Tan and Ling began to want to develop their business. No longer just working with a taxi company, he also wants to invite a car rental company or a private person who wants to make his car as a business vehicle to join GrabCar. Finally, GrabCar officially became operational in July 2014.
Four months later, precisely in November 2014, Grab began opening the GrabRide service. GrabRide is an online transportation service that uses motorcycle taxi services. Now, this service is the most popular transportation service in Jakarta which is synonymous with traffic.
Entering 2015, Grab is no longer just a transportation service. The company also started providing goods delivery services. With the name GrabExpress, Grab helps the people of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore who want to deliver packages to relatives. This year the GrabHitch service also appeared.
January 2016, Grab began to enter the world of fintech with GrabPay services. GrabPay is the only digital payment service in Southeast Asia that has access to e-money licenses in six ASEAN giant economies.
Still in 2016, users can begin to enjoy GrabFood services. President of Grab Indonesia, Ridzki Kramadibrata, in Empirica, Jakarta, Wednesday (02/13/2019), said that Grab Food is now available in 178 cities in Indonesia and 187 cities in Southeast Asia.
2017 is also a beautiful year for Grab with its various achievements. In addition to successfully penetrating the markets of Myanmar and Cambodia, Grab also has several partnerships and new business developments. Call it GrabCoach, GrabShuttle, JustGrab, P2P fund transfers, GrabRewards, merchant payments, and work with Kudo.
A year later, Grab created a buzz called GrabVentures. Through this program, Grab provides capital and training for start-up activists to develop their business. In Indonesia, Ridzki said that Grab Ventures provided an investment of 250 million US dollars or Rp 3 trillion.
Throughout 2018, Grab has successfully expanded its services from 12 cities in early 2017 to 222 cities in Indonesia. This achievement strengthens its position as the O2O mobile platform with the widest scope in Indonesia, from Sabang to Merauke. In line with its business expansion, Grab currently also leads the Indonesian ride-hailing market with 60 percent market share in the two-wheeled vehicle segment and 70 percent market share in the four-wheeled vehicle segment. In 2018, Grab also launched the Grab Platform, GrabFresh which helps users to shop for daily necessities, and GrabWheels in Singapore. However, the biggest breakthrough that Grab did in 2018 was the acquisition of Uber. Since then, Grab has become a Super App.
"We have launched the Super App from last year, since we acquired Uber. (Since then) we have begun to provide Delivery, bill payment, which is the payment within our application, the contents, then the sports venue in our application," Ridzki said.
Grab as the leading Super App in Southeast Asia, offers daily solutions with transportation services, delivery of goods and food, mobile payments, and digital entertainment. With an open platform philosophy, Grab brings together partners to make life better for all users in Southeast Asia.
Along with this expansion, Grab has successfully invited various companies to invest in the company. For example, Grab received funding from a Korean automotive company, Hyundai, valued at Rp 250 million US dollars or Rp 3.6 trillion. In addition, Grab also received investment from Toyota worth 1 billion US dollars. Most recently, Grab received funding from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Cini Venue. Its value is quite large, which is 2.7 billion US dollars. Not to mention funding from other investors, such as Oppenheimer Funds, Ping An Capital, Mirae Asset - Naver Asia Growth Fund, and Light speed Venture Partner.
Now, Grab has reached the decacorn level. That is, the Grab valuation has reached more than 10 billion US dollars. Starting with a capital of 250 million US dollars, now Grab's valuation is 11 billion US dollars or Rp 155 trillion. Grab continues to carve out new history.
Over the past year, the number of Grab users grew by 600 percent. This was conveyed by the Managing Director of Grab for Indonesia Ridzki Kramadibrata after the launch of the 'Grab 4 Indonesia' program, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Jakarta, Thursday (2/2).
Grab also gave rise to the Grab Reward program innovation related to driver loyalty and also the Grab Chat feature, where there is a service to send messages (chats) between users and drivers. To provide a broader impact for the people of Indonesia, the company that provides digital-based vehicle ordering applications for Grab, stated its commitment to pour funds of US $ 700 million or around Rp 9.3 trillion, for investment in Indonesia.
The fund will be invested in three sectors, in stages over the next four years. The investment is part of the Grab 2020 master plan titled "Grab 4 Indonesia".
First, Grab will build a study and development center (Research and Development / R&D Center) in Indonesia. This facility was built to develop innovations that are specialized in the transportation sector and this digital economy. The plan, Grab will recruit 150 local engineers in the next two years.
Second, Grab will also invest in technopreneurship for social purposes. Grab will prepare funds of around US $ 100 million to fund startups and technopreneur companies that focus on increasing financial inclusion in all cities and levels of society.
Third, Grab will also continue to develop its mobile services, to increase access of the Indonesian people to financing opportunities in the digital sector. Grab will expand the mobile payment solution by continuing to develop GrabPay Credits services, non-cash payment options, partnerships with Bank Mandiri through e-cash, and continue to develop e-money payment platforms with Lippo Group and Nobu Bank.
In addition, Grab will also provide more access to financing opportunities to buy and own smartphones (smartphones) and motor vehicles to its driving partners. This is done to encourage the driver's partners to build their welfare in a sustainable manner as micro businesses.
The inclusion of digital platforms such as Grab, can increase financial inclusion with the programs offered. Then it can integrate all sectors that are being encouraged by the government such as transportation and tourism. We should support the development of online transportation business like Grab. This kind of application has helped Indonesia, especially in its contribution to the progress of a city or tourist destination. The development of the potential of a city and tourist attraction will only be possible with the support of the transportation and accommodation sector. It is hoped that in the coming years the transportation business will grow, giving access to the periphery areas, and later can contribute positively to advancing the wheels of the nation's economy.
