Under new name, Grab ride-hailing service

Anthony Tan, chief executive officer and co-founder of the leading ride-hailing platform, said yesterday that its navigation system had been gradually developed to make it easier for customers, while passengers are able to pay by credit cards as well as cash.

Driven by data analytics, the Malaysia-based tech start-up firm has spent US$100 million (Bt3.58 billion) on research and development. To bring in more talent, the firm has branched out its engineering hubs to Beijing, Singapore, and recently Seattle.

From now on, Grab is expending more effort on expansion of cloud infrastructures being developed by its 30 information-technology experts.

The latest navigation system is able to allow passengers to select their preferred pick-up and drop-off points. The revamped application will also offer new features like "auto-retry", which helps a passenger who fails to get a vehicle on the first attempt without having to go through the booking process manually. Live driver tracking is also available in this app.

The firm will also add a "Flash" feature to help passengers find the closest taxis. The in-app feature will be available next month.

"Apart from the rebranding, the firm also revamped its new interface application under the concept of ‘light, fresh and new’. We also take a hyper-local approach to understand what users in each Southeast Asian city prefer, from language preference to payment options," said Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling.

"GrabPay", which is set to launch in Thailand in the first half of the year, enables passengers to go cashless by using credit cards. A single-credit-card service is now available in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, while multiple card service will be fully introduced by the end of this month.

Entering a new market segment, the firm also offers "GrabWork" to attract corporate passengers who would want get consolidated business or personal statements for claim-submission purposes. The in-app feature is integrated with GrabPay to toggle between personal and corporate payment options.

"After gaining a better understanding about different demands, we therefore have to create and offer more flexible service for different needs. The payment options are among our priorities. For instance, students at Chulalongkorn University might prefer to pay by cash while corporate-credit-card payment might be convenient for SCG officers," Anthony Tan explained.

He said the key revenue driver for his business was the emergence of the middle class in Southeast Asia countries, which is expected to double by 2020.

To date, there have been more than 11 million Grab app downloads in 28 cities of six countries for ride-hailing services ranging from taxis to private cars, motorbikes, carpooling and delivery.

The company was founded in 2012 in Malaysia and has received crowd funding of Bt700 million from major investors Vertex Ventures Holdings (Temasek), GGV Capital, Qunar, Tiger Global, Hillhouse Capital, Softbank, China Investment Corporation, Didi Kuaidi and Coatue.