Grab may be best known in the U.S. as the ride-hailing service that pushed Uber out of Southeast Asia. But it’s also a super app that connects hundreds of thousands of gig workers and merchants in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other markets. And more recently, Grab’s financial services division has been helping more of those people build greater economic stability.
Since 2019, the division has issued loans to drivers and small- and medium-size vendors whose variable income would make them unlikely to get financing from banks and other traditional lenders. Grab judges the borrowers’ creditworthiness based on data from transactions on the app. It says one in three of its active driver partners uses its credit service, to meet funding needs as varied as phone or motorcycle replacements, weddings, or their children’s education. Merchants, meanwhile, take it up to ease cash-flow needs. Grab disbursed $1.5 billion in loans in 2023, up 57% from the previous year.