Singapore-based super app Grab reported revenue up 17% in
the second quarter of this year to $664 million compared to the same period
last year.
Founded in 2012, Grab provides mobility, delivery and
digital financial services in more than 700 cities in eight Southeast Asia countries
- Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam.
The gross merchandise value of its on-demand businesses –
which includes mobility and deliveries – in Q2 grew 13% year over year to $4.4
billion. Adjusted EBITDA improved by $81 million year-over-year to
$64 million.
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In a call with analysts to discuss the results, group CEO
and Grab co-founder Anthony Tan noted the company’s growth in financial
services.
“ … we had a public launch of Superbank in June, our digital
bank in Indonesia,” he said.
“With all the three digital banks now fully operational,
together with GrabFin, our fintech platform, we are very excited about our
opportunities to continue driving financial inclusion across the region.”
Looking ahead, Tan said the company will use a three-pronged
approach: scaling its ecosystem to capture predicted growth in Southeast Asian for
inbound tourism and domestic demand; employing cost discipline across its
business and continuing to invest in artificial intelligence to deliver
innovative customer and partner experiences.
“For example, we have rolled out AI-powered dish descriptions
in five out of eight markets at scale,” he said.
“Our experiments have shown a significant improvement in
checkout rates from our long-tail merchant partners that used AI-generated
descriptions. This is about one of many examples of the way we are leveraging
foundational AI capabilities and generative AI to continue to improve our
marketplace.”
In May
Grab announced a partnership with OpenAI.