Though Singapore’s Grab started as a ride-hailing app, the company has pushed far beyond everyday gig economy services. Grab isn’t just about getting a ride or ordering a burger. The company also offers financial services for consumers, as well as business loans and advertising opportunities.
Cofounded by Group CEO Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling—who met at Harvard Business School—Grab is considered Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup. Grab serves more than 25 million monthly users across eight countries in Southeast Asia. With a current valuation of $40 billion, Grab is on its way to becoming a public company via one of the biggest SPAC deals in history.
Growing the business in Indonesia and Vietnam meant tackling a host of challenges. “Drivers didn’t even have bank accounts. So we couldn’t send them money after their day’s earnings,” says Tan. “We had to first finance their smartphone, set up their first bank account, and get them going.”
Tan joins Fortune’s Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt on this week’s episode of Leadership Next, a podcast about the changing rules of business leadership.
Murray and McGirt speak with Tan about his fast-growing business as well as Grab’s big pivots during COVID-19. It was the Grab leadership team’s impressive response to the pandemic that landed Tan on this year’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” list.
Early on in the pandemic, Grab transitioned more than 200,000 drivers from ride-hailing to food delivery, built out a ride service that catered to health care workers, and helped develop social programs, including vaccination centers in Indonesia. At the same time, the company managed to grow revenues in 2020, finishing 60% above 2019 numbers.
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