Eat this. Malaysian startup gobbles US giant’s Southeast Asian operations. If that isn’t the biggest news of the day, I don’t know what is. Coincidently, it happens to be the biggest deal of its kind in the region.
In case you haven’t heard, Grab is acquiring Uber’s Southeast Asian operations which covers eight countries.
We’re talking about a USD6 billion combined valuation, based on the 27.5 percent stake Uber will take in Grab. The deal will also see Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining the Grab board.
While ride-sharing is high on the agenda, Grab will also grab another piece of pie – Uber Eats, Uber’s growing food delivery platform.
This will fast track GrabFood–Grab’s food delivery expansion in Southeast Asia which is currently present in Indonesia and Thailand. It plans to expand to Singapore and Malaysia soon.
Uber Eats, meanwhile, has existing operations in Singapore and Malaysia and is reported to be doing well. In the region, it competes with other local players including Honestbee, Deliveroo and long-standing Foodpanda.
Grab says it plans to make GrabFood available across all major Southeast Asian countries in the second quarter of this year.
While transitionary processes take place, Uber Eats will continue to run until end of May. Subsequently, Uber delivery and restaurant partners will migrate to the GrabFood platform.
On its website, Grab says that customers can expect prices on GrabFood to remain the same as on Uber Eats. Compensation to restaurant and delivery partners will not see any change in compensation either.
Source: Channel News Asia, DealStreetAsia, Grab
