Taxi app Grab acquires Indonesian online payments start-up Kudo

Details: James Barton; Category: Mobile Finance; 04 April 2017; 5281 views

Singaporean ride-sharing platform Grab is acquiring Indonesian online payments provider Kudo.

While the final sum has not been disclosed, Grab was reportedly closing in on a deal to buy the start-up for $100 million in mid-February. Kudo is Indonesia’s largest platform for online to offline e-commerce, and both its platform and team will be integrated into Grab’s mobile payments offering GrabPay once the deal has closed.

Grab has pledged to invest $700 million into Indonesia across the next four years, in what it terms its Grab 4 Indonesia 2020 plan, and has stated that buying Kudo is the first stage of this. The companies are considering ways to boost Kudo’s services offering to cover consumer loans and insurance.

Kudo CEO Albert Lucius said: “This acquisition creates immediate synergies with our existing business. We are excited to work together to bring the ease and convenience of cashless payments to more Indonesians than ever before.”

Kudo was founded in 2014, and allows Indonesia’s unbanked population to make online purchases via a network of over 400,000 agents. Its platform covers more than 500 towns and cities across the archipelagic nation.

Grab is available in 39 cities in six different countries, and its network hosts 710,000 drivers. Indonesia is its largest market. Across the markets where it operates, it holds a market share of 95% for third-party taxi apps, and a share of over 50% for private cars.