Alibaba Is in Talks to Invest $3 Billion in Grab
The Chinese e-commerce giant, a sole investor in the round, will spend a portion of the funds to acquire some of the Grab stock held by Uber Technologies Inc., one of the people said, asking not to be named as the discussions are private. The deal may represent one of Alibaba’s biggest bets on Southeast Asia since its first investment in Lazada in 2016.
China’s largest corporation has previously had limited forays in ride-hailing but a potential tie-up with Grab gives it access to data on millions of users in eight countries, a growing delivery fleet as well as a stake in digital wallet and financial services. One specific plan under discussion is to integrate Grab’s delivery network into Lazada, giving the Singaporean startup access to a wider network of consumers, one of the people said.