GrabTaxi Holdings PTE. LTD – The Skinny

GrabTaxi Holdings PTE. LTD - The Skinny
Grab offers ride sharing and food delivery as well as ride hailing throughout the city and surrounding areas

GrabTaxi Holdings made the ranks of the famous unicorn companies in April of 2014. Based out of Singapore, this on-demand taxi service has grown in worth to $11 billion US. Technically a technology company, Grab offers ride sharing and food delivery as well as ride hailing throughout the city and surrounding areas. What we wanted to know is how this firm reinvented the taxi business model to make them a unicorn company.

Grab Taxi

GrabTaxi Holdings

Grab operate in 168 cities across the eastern area and was co founded by Anthony Tan and Tan Hool Ling. Tan’s family owned a motor hire business, and he had the inspiration to move it online back in 2011. A mobile app was developed and Grab went into operation. At the time it was in direct competition with Uber, but in March 2018 they bought out Ubers south east Asia division, effectively eliminating the competition and making them the only online ride hailing service in that part of the world. This may have something to do with the company’s success.

Grab Bike

After the company met with unprecedented success in Singapore they expanded to the Philippines in 2013. Since then they have moved from city to city with fantastic receptions. In 2015 the introduced GrabBike by popular demand. Since then it has developed, refined and added to its original service to incorporate various modes of transport. As of the end of 2018 the firm is said to have an average of 3.5 million daily users and 68 million mobile app downloads. It is thought that they cover a whopping 97% of the market. With statistics like that the company growth is set to continue, full steam ahead.

GrabTaxi, now known only as ‘Grab’, has had funding from Vertex Venture Holdings, the Softbank Group and GGV Capital – to name but a few investors. It’s use of the Peer to Peer business model in order to create and sustain an online vehicle hire platform is the key to its success. They also take a small percentage of each fare from every ride that they facilitate and they can charge drivers flat rates to become members. Grab have been connected with corporate financial giants Didi Chuxing. They have a huge research and development department working on computer science and software developments, all of which is aimed at updating and improving an already substantial service. It can be theorized that this department is what helps them stay abreast of all things online and seriously helps with new growth and the production of new tools.

List of Services

Grab aren’t just a taxi service, there are multiple levels to their firm. Some of which are as follows:

  • Research and development centers in Singapore and Seattle.
  • The biggest E-fleet of taxis in south east Asia.
  • GrabBike – for hiring bikes.
  • GrabCar Plus – for luxury vehicle hire.
  • Coach style vehicle hire.
  • GrabFamily – for hiring vehicle equipped with extra seating and child seats.
  • JustGrab – their flat rate fare service.
  • GrabShare is their ride sharing tool.
  • GrabEconomy – their economy service, soon to be defunct.
  • Their food delivery service.
Grab Car

So as you can see they go above and beyond to be the experts in their field. It is this focus on research and development combined with their acquisition of Uber;s south east Asia division that has ultimately earned them a place as a unicorn company. As they spread and expand to new areas we can only expect that overall value to rise.

Further Information

If you would like to know more about GrabTaxi you can visit their website by following this link.