Grab plans to go public in US in partnership with Altimeter

Grab and Altimeter will go public together in the US

The proposed transactions value Grab at an initial pro-forma equity value of approximately $39.6 billion at a private investment in public equity (PIPE) size of more than $4 billion and will provide Grab with approximately $4.5 billion in cash proceeds. Grab is a superapp dedicated to serving everyday needs and everyday entrepreneurs. It offers services across mobility, deliveries, financial services and more, in an all-in-one app.

Anthony Tan, Group CEO and co-founder, Grab said, “It gives us immense pride to represent Southeast Asia in the global public markets. This is a milestone in our journey to open up access for everyone to benefit from the digital economy. This is even more critical as our region recovers from COVID-19. It was very challenging for us too, but it taught us immensely about the resiliency of our business. Our diversified superapp strategy helped our driver-partners pivot to deliveries and enabled us to deliver growth while improving profitability. As we become a publicly-traded company, we will work even harder to create economic empowerment for our communities because when Southeast Asia succeeds, Grab succeeds.”

Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO, Altimeter said, “As one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing internet companies, Grab is paving the digital path forward for the 670 million citizens of Southeast Asia. We are thrilled that Grab selected Altimeter Capital Markets as their partner to go public and even more excited to become sizeable long-term owners in this innovative, mission driven company."

Southeast Asia is one of the fastest growing digital economies in the world, with a population approximately twice the size of the United States. Yet online penetration for food delivery, on-demand mobility, and electronic transactions are a fraction of the US and China. Across online food delivery, ride-hailing and digital wallet payments, Grab expects its total addressable market to grow from approximately $52 billion in 2020 to more than $180 billion by 2025.

Grab believes it is perfectly positioned to serve the needs of consumers, merchants, and drivers in Southeast Asia through its superapp strategy. It offers an ecosystem of complementary services, addressing high-frequency, everyday needs, all through one app. This creates a flywheel effect designed to drive growth while lowering cost of service.

The more services offered, the more the choices, and consequently the greater the value to consumers using the Grab superapp. In fact, the proportion of Grab users that use two or more services has grown five times over the last two years. As consumer spending grows, so do the income opportunities for Grab’s merchant and driver-partners, encouraging more of them into Grab’s ecosystem. This leads to wider selection, better value, and faster delivery times for users, with benefits to consumer loyalty and lifetime value.

Grab’s decision to become a public company was driven by strong financial performance in 2020, despite COVID-19. Grab posted gross merchandise value (GMV) of approximately $12.5 billion in 2020, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and more than doubling from 2018.

The company is also currently the category leader in Southeast Asia for its core verticals, accounting for approximately 72 per cent of total regional GMV for ride-hailing, 50 per cent of total regional GMV for online food delivery, and 23 per cent of regional TPV for digital wallet payments in 2020.