SoftBank-backed Grab seeks $2.0b funding in drive

SINGAPORE, Apr 08 (Reuters): Grab is looking to raise another $2 billion this year to ramp up expansion, its CEO Anthony Tan told Reuters, just weeks after announcing over $4.5 billion of funding in what has become Southeast Asia's largest round of private financing.

The mega funding comes as Grab rolls out an aggressive strategy to expand its bouquet of services, from transport to food delivery and payments, as it races Indonesia's Go-Jek to become an app-for-everything in Southeast Asia, home to about 650 million people.

Grab, which is backed by Japan's SoftBank, expects to invest a significant portion of the funds in Indonesia, it said in a statement later. Reuters reported the funding target earlier on Monday.

"We basically received a very strong vote of confidence. And Masa shared that SoftBank is very happy with Grab and that SoftBank will provide unlimited support to power our growth," Tan said, referring to SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son.