In a significant event in Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, Singapore-based tech firm GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd. (branded as simply Grab) has today announce the launch of Grab Ventures, an initiative to develop innovations in-house, pursue strategic partnerships and seek out South-east Asia's next generation of technology unicorns.

Grab Ventures will invest in startups in sectors like mobility, fintech, logistics and food-tech. The venture arm will also develop "cutting-edge technology and build fast-growing businesses" in-house, such as bike and e-scooter sharing platform GrabCycle.

The investments that Grab will do, through its newly launched Grab Ventures, will come from Grab’s own balance sheet is set to look at Series B funding rounds and beyond (i.e in growth stage startups), said Grab Group CEO and Co-Founder Anthony Tan on Tuesday as he announced the launch of Grab Ventures at the Innovfest Unbound 2018 event in Singapore.

Additionally, Grab will also run new accelerator programme for growth-stage start-ups called Velocity, through which the company plans to fetch expertise, technical resources and networks to help their expansion. Through Velocity, Grab will partner some eight to 10 growth-stage start-ups over the next two years, and may invest in select start-ups that exhibit "strong synergies" with Grab.

Startups interested in applying for the Velocity accelerator programme can visit ventures.grab.com for more information.

Six-year old Grab, which now has ventured into multiple verticals, including online payments, finance, shopping, logistics, and food delivery, has already made a few investments and acquisitions. It acquired Indonesian startup Kudo, India’s iKaaz, Kudo, an Indonesian payments start-up which Grab acquired in 2017 and, in a recent move, partnered in-car commerce startup Cargo to enable its drivers to earn extra money through in-car e-commerce.

In Singapore, Grab has partnered government agencies such as the Info-communications Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) and Enterprise SG to tap their expertise in areas including capability development, global market access and regulatory support. EDBI, the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), has also joined the Velocity programme as one of its early partners.

In India, Grab has its R&D centre in Bangalore, which is one of six globally and serves as a centre of excellence for payments.

Via - StraitsTime

[Top Image - BusinessInsider.sg]
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