Booking Holdings Grabs a slice of Southeast Asian ride sharing
Booking Holdings has made another big strategic investment in the sharing economy with a US$200 million cash injection in Southeast Asia’s largest ride hailing app Grab.
Singapore based Grab operates in more than 200 cities across Southeast Asia.
The investment will see a strategic partnership established with millions of accommodation listings integrated within the Grab app.
All hotels and alternative accommodations listed via Booking.com and Agoda.com will be accessible via Grab’s app.
"The online travel market in Southeast Asia is set to nearly triple by 2025 and we see numerous synergies between travel and transportation," said Ming Maa, president of Grab.
Maa recently said Grab aims to raise up to US$3 billion by the end of the year in fresh funding.
Grab now has a market valuation of about US$11 billion.
Grab has grown rapidly, especially after absorbing all of Uber’s Southeast Asia operations earlier this year.
However the deal was criticized by Singapore’s anti-trust watchdog which dished out big fines for ‘anti-competitive practices.’
Grab’s biggest competitor is arguably Indonesia’s Go-Jek which is close to launching in Grab’s backyard of Singapore after expanding recently in the Philippines and Thailand.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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