Toyota Motor to invest $1.0b in ride-hailing firm Grab
Thursday, 14 June 2018
SINGAPORE, June 13 (Reuters): Toyota Motor Corp has agreed to invest $1.0 billion in Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab.
Japanese automaker Toyota will be a lead investor in the company's ongoing financing round, which was launched after it bought Uber Technologies' regional business.
The investment by Toyota is the largest-ever by an automaker in the global ride-hailing sector, the six-year old start-up said in a statement on Wednesday.
It will allow Grab to further expand its range of online to offline services, such as food delivery and digital payments, deeper into the region.
A Toyota executive will be appointed to Grab's board of directors.
A dedicated Toyota team member will also be seconded to the ride-hailing farm as an executive officer.
Toyota's trading arm has previously invested in Grab, which also counts Chinese peer Didi Chuxing and Japan's SoftBank Group Corp as investors.
Earlier this year, Uber sold its regional operations to Grab for a 27.5 per cent stake in the Singapore-headquartered firm.
The deal ended a bruising battle between the two for regional dominance.