[NurPhoto/Getty/Kyodo]
TOKYO - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. said Tuesday it will invest up to $706 million in Southeast Asian ride-hailing app operator Grab Holdings Inc. in a cross-industry alliance to increase its customer reach and expand its financial service business in the region.
The parent of Japan's largest bank MUFG Bank will offer its expertise such as financial product development and risk management to the Singapore-based ride-hailing operator which already provides lending, insurance and wealth management services.
Separately, Japanese network and system integration service firm TIS Inc. said Tuesday it will invest $150 million in Grab to cooperate in the field of digital payment infrastructure in Southeast Asia and Japan.
"This latest fundraising from Japanese investors comes off the back of Grab's rapid growth in 2019 where the company established itself as the leading ride-hailing, food delivery and digital payments provider in Southeast Asia," Grab said in a statement.
Grab's app has been downloaded to over 185 million mobile terminals. Among Japanese companies, Toyota Motor Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. have already invested in Grab, which operates in 339 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries.
The Japanese financial group known as MUFG has been expanding its business in Southeast Asia through investments in local banks in Indonesia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, but accessing customer bases of so-called platformers is said to be more effective in expanding customer reach in some of the countries in the region than approaching bank account holders.
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