artificial intelligence<\/a> and expansion of new services such as online groceries and \u200cfinancial products to triple profit by 2028, the company’s president told Reuters.<\/p>\nGrab has set goals for the \u200cnext three years of growing revenue by more than 20% each year and tripling EBITDA to $1.5 billion in 2028 from last year’s level, President \u200band Chief Operating Officer Alex Hungate said in an interview at the company’s Singapore headquarters.<\/p>\n
Ride\u2011hailing in Southeast Asia has shifted from subsidy\u2011fuelled expansion to a profitability push, as companies contend with rising operating costs while looking to AI-optimised super\u2011apps to monetise bundling rides with deliveries and financial services.<\/p>\n
Nasdaq-listed Grab earlier this month announced its first-ever full-year net profit with its \u200c2025 results, 14 years after it was \u2060founded and following billions of dollars in fundraising. However, the company’s forecasts for 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA fell short of Wall Street estimates, sending shares lower. The stock is \u2060down more than 15% this year, while Uber is down 11% and Lyft is down 31%.<\/p>\n
In a research note this week, Huatai Securities said higher investment in autonomous vehicle partnerships and AI could weigh on profitability, and flagged risks including “slower-than-expected improvement in user \u200bpenetration \u200band macroeconomic volatility”.<\/p>\n
Grab aims to achieve its 2028 targets by getting \u200bmore efficiency from its main app and delivery \u200cnetwork, Hungate said. As users already use Grab frequently, it can bundle services such as mobility, food delivery and groceries at a lower cost, he added.<\/p>\n
The company, which operates in more than 900 cities across Southeast Asia, is also expanding its financial services offerings, and can use its data to underwrite loans more precisely than traditional banks typically can, according to Hungate.<\/p>\n
Grab has taken “toeholds” outside Southeast Asia, including its acquisition in U.S. wealth platform Stash, he added.<\/p>\n
Hungate \u200csaid Grab’s “first and best” use of cash is reinvesting in Southeast \u200bAsia to drive organic growth, although the company is open to \u200bselect acquisitions.<\/p>\n
He said there are no plans currently for \u200ba second listing, and there was “no update” on media reports concerning a potential merger with \u200csmaller Indonesian rival GoTo.<\/p>\n
Grab is exploring building AI \u200bagents to foster loyalty, with \u200bautomated assistants for drivers and merchants, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Yantoultra Ngui and Jun Yuan Yong SINGAPORE, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Southeast Asia’s top ride-hailing and delivery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,155973,343,344,34787,80584,85,46,155974,15020,125],"class_list":["post-311312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-alex-hungate","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-financial-products","tag-grab","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-online-groceries","tag-southeast-asia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}