Grab plans big expansion in Vietnan

Southeast Asia’s largest ride sharing network Grab intends to fund a big push into Vietnam.

It will spend ‘hundreds of millions’ to grow its ridership, a top executive said.

"We’re very excited about Vietnam. We see very similar characteristics to Indonesia. I would expect us to invest over several hundred million dollars into growing our Vietnam business," said Grab Holdings Inc president Ming Maa.

Vietnam is among Grab’s top four markets but penetration is still low and it has entered only a few select cities.

It sees Vietnam as its next big growth market, Maa said.

During the first half of this year, Grab was the most downloaded ride-hailing app in Vietnam, where it faces more competition from Indonesia based Go-Jek.

It comes off the back of an announcement ro invest a further US$2 billion in Indonesia.

Grab is targetinng revenue of US$2 billion as it ramps up not only core ride sharing services in Vietnam but also its ‘Super App’ ambitions with the GrabFood delivery service and financial products.

Grab is now valued at an estimated US$14 billion and is considered Southeast Asia’s largest tech startup.