Grab Sees Strong Banking Growth From Digitally-Engaged Singapore

Indonesian super app Grab saw a record number of monthly users in its latest quarter.

“We continued to harness the strength of the Grab ecosystem, and improved the usage frequency and reliability of our products and services,” Grab CEO and Co-founder Anthony Tan said in a news release Thursday (Aug. 15).

“During the quarter, we achieved a new milestone, serving more users than ever at a record high of 41 million MTUs while delivering continued profitable growth at scale.”

And although the company saw growth this quarter in its ride-hailing and food delivery business, management took time during Thursday’s earnings call to discuss the company’s banking operations, which include three digital banks and Grabfin, its FinTech platform.

“Deposits in GXS Bank in Singapore And GX Bank in Malaysia grew substantially by over 50% quarter on quarter to $730,000,000, with total loan disposals across Grabfin and our DG banks hitting an annualized run rate of $2,000,000,000 in the 2nd quarter,” Tan said.

Those numbers — at least for Singapore — would not come as a surprise to readers of the PYMNTS Intelligence “How the World Does Digital” report, which found high levels of digital engagement in the city-state, where almost everyone has access to high-speed internet, cellular networks of at least 4G, and a smartphone.

“Singapore’s government is a strong advocate for digital transformation among its businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs),” PYMNTS wrote last month.

“This commitment is evident in the millions of dollars invested in funding initiatives like the SMEs Go Digital program. With digital technology transforming every sector of Singapore’s economy, the initiative ensures that SMEs grow digitally and make the most of digital solutions to improve operations and generate new revenue.”

Also Thursday, management addressed Grab’s attempt to acquire Trans-Cab, Singapore’s third largest cab company, but was rebuffed by the local competition regulator.

“We had hoped to use it to accelerate a new supply or to create more productivity from the taxi fleet that we were acquiring so it would in fact, essentially add supply to the Singapore market,” said Grab Chief Operating Officer Alex Hungate.

“But in the meantime, we’ve been actually working on supply enhancement in Singapore in many, many different ways … because through our technology we’re getting higher and higher productivity from the drivers in Singapore, with a lot of new initiatives.”