SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab said on Tuesday (Mar 19) that it aims to become one of the region’s largest financial services provider this year, catering to micro-entrepreneurs as well as small and medium enterprises.
Its financial services unit, Grab Financial Group, announced a roadmap which would see the rollout of several products and services starting with Singapore in the next few weeks.
AdvertisementThese include an online check-out service that allows sellers to accept GrabPay as a mobile wallet on their website or platform. The service was launched on Tuesday with Qoo10 and 11Street, two of the largest e-commerce platforms in Singapore and Malaysia, respectively, Grab said.
GrabPay will also be integrated with point-of-sale devices at food chains such as Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, as well as Paris Baguette, it added.
A post-paid payment credit option, Pay Later, will also be launched in Singapore before being rolled out in other countries.
This follows the announcement by Grab Financial Services Asia last March of a joint venture with Japan’s Credit Saison to expand access to credit for Southeast Asia’s unbanked.
AdvertisementAdvertisementPay Later will initially allow customers to pay for Grab services at the end of each month, before expanding to allow for installment payments at zero per cent interest over several months, Grab said.
It will only be offered to its “most creditworthy customers”, where their credit ratings are based on several criteria including their time spent on the Grab platform, frequency of its use and spending patterns, it added.
There will be penalties in place for creditors who fail to repay their loans on time, Grab said, but did not go into further details.
In addition, Grab will launch an insurance marketplace in April targeted at micro-entrepreneurs.
As a start, two new products aimed at its drivers will be made available through the Grab app: prolonged medical leave insurance and basic insurance coverage top ups.
“We are doubling down on our financial services offering for micro-entrepreneurs with 'Grow with Grab'. This is a huge untapped opportunity for Grab Financial (Group) to support the region’s entrepreneurs who are less able to access traditional financial institutions,” said Mr Rueben Lai, senior managing director of Grab Financial Group.
“While SMEs contribute more than 50 per cent of ASEAN’s GDP, two thirds of SMEs cite business funding and financing as their biggest problem. The Grab app has served more than 9 million micro-entrepreneurs over the last six years.
"As a result, we can leverage our scale and data insights to bring financial services products to market at a more competitive price point than anyone else.”
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