At the Money 20/20 2019 Asia event today, ride-hailing and local services app Grab announced a suite of new payments features which include an online checkout system for GrabPay, point-of-sale terminals for merchants, and credit services in a bid to provide a comprehensive portfolio of financial services for micro, small and medium enterprise owners in the region.
Beginning with Singapore, sellers can now accept GrabPay through an online check-out and point-of-sale device integration. Some examples of the participating partners are online and offline merchants as well as payment gateways, including Cathay Cineplexes, Adyen, Boku, iPay88, Dragonpay, Qoo10, and 11Street.
Grab also expanded its suite of lending services by adding small business loans for Singapore companies. A “pay later” option which lets shoppers pay big-ticket items over months at no interest will be launched in the coming months.
One case describing how Grab handles SME lending, shared by Reuben Lai, the senior managing director of Grab Financial at the event is a local streetwear brand – Flash Imp. Grab’s SME Lending provided a loan at a critical juncture for Flash Imp to meet an unexpectedly large order, allowing the company to pivot successfully from the retail business to OEM Manufacturing.
Both the lending and insurance products will start with Singapore and then be rolled out across the other Southeast Asian markets in which Grab operates.
The race to become the all-in-one super app of Southeast Asia looks set to only escalate. Just last week, Grab kickstarted its Grab Defence anti-fraud technology suite pilot in Indonesia and now it making further advancements for its financial service business arm. The company has also recently secured US$1.46 billion for its Series H fundraising round.
Meanwhile, close competitor Go-Jek is facing multiple challenges as it continues to expand in the region. News broke of a client allegedly raping a Go-Massage therapist and now Go-Jek has implemented new measures to deal with Indonesia’s sexual harassment risk. Challenges pertaining to entering the Philippines’ ride-hailing market have also yet to be resolved.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad