An app that delivers

• Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of 500-backed super app Grab, Tan Hooi Ling, was interviewed on Business Insider about the startup’s journey and where it plans to head next.

• First launched as a taxi-booking app in Malaysia, it has evolved into becoming the first super app in Southeast Asia, with services in delivery and digital banking.
• The 8-year-old startup is now considered to be Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, with a 2019 valuation of US$14 billion.
• The brainchild of Hooi Ling and fellow founder Anthony Tan, Grab was born to solve a problem often faced by their friends and family: getting a taxi safely, especially for women at night. At the same time, new income opportunities were created — for single moms looking for flexible part-time work or differently-abled individuals who struggled to find regular work.
• These days, the startup focuses on solving the financial inclusion gap in the region. Hooi Ling shared that an estimated 70% of Southeast Asia’s population are unbanked and invisible to traditional banking institutions. “As they cannot get access to credit or other financial services, they get trapped in a vicious cycle that makes it hard for them to break out of poverty,” she explained.
• What the app grew into today was not part of the plan. It is the result of a constant dedication to problem-solving. “While developing our transportation solutions, we discovered that millions of Southeast Asians still didn’t have the right access to basic services like banking and financial services,” Hooi Ling said. “That’s why we launched Grab Financial Group. Becoming a super app was thus a means to an end — to help provide as many solutions to our customers in the most convenient form for them.”
• On the effects of the pandemic on the business, Hooi Ling saw a silver lining — the acceleration of digitalization, with many sectors that have been resisting going digital compelled to do so to survive.
• “We brought nearly 600,000 new merchants across SEA online onto our platform last year, which more than doubled the number of merchants on Grab,” she shared. “These include hawkers, wet markets, and many other traditional businesses. Our priority now is to build on this momentum. We want to help more SMEs and traditional businesses embrace the full potential of digital transformation.”
• What’s next for the startup? According to Hooi Ling, they’ve only just scratched the surface. Grab will stay focused on Southeast Asia, using technology to continue uplifting millions of lives and building a more inclusive digital economy.
• The startup expects deliveries to continue being an important service for most even after the pandemic is over. It plans to double down on deliveries across food, groceries and logistics. It will also invest in its merchant services platform to help merchants go online while helping them earn more and reducing their operating costs in this new normal.
• Read the full interview here.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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