Speech for Grab HQ @ Singapore and Inclusive Growth Programmes Launch, August 11, 2022

Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance,

Partners of Grab, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning and a very warm welcome to Grab HQ @ Singapore! We’re honoured and excited to host all of you at the official opening of this campus.?

It seemed like only yesterday that our early Grab team and I worked out of the driver’s room in a rental car office. At that time, our v1 app did only one thing -- book a ride. It didn’t even give an estimated time of arrival or offer cashless payments, which are features we take for granted today. We wouldn’t have imagined that one day, we’d have our own campus in the tech hub of Singapore, housing an R&D team that is developing hyperlocal solutions to solve real problems for Southeast Asia. I am very grateful to our private sector and government partners – including Ascendas, Capitaland, DISG, EDB, IMDA, JTC and MTI and many others – as well as our Grabbers, for having worked so hard to make this campus a reality. Thank you so much!

Reflecting on our 10 year journey, we’ve had to adapt our business many times to changing market environments. The pandemic was one of our toughest periods. I’m glad we not only managed to survive, but have thrived along with our ecosystem. We are very optimistic about Southeast Asia in the longer term, given the significant market opportunity and current under-penetration of digital services. But we are also pragmatic about the current realities of rising inflation, and its direct impact on our business and our partners. This is prompting our consumers to expect more affordable services, and conversely, our driver and merchant-partners to expect higher net earnings. Hence, relentless innovation is urgently needed -- to build a sustainable and thriving marketplace that balances the interests of both our consumers and partners.

As such, we are making a long-term commitment towards inclusive growth and innovation for the digital economy on three fronts.?

First, we aim to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to thrive online.?

Over 680,000 SMEs across the region joined GrabFood and GrabMart last year. This number will grow quickly, as the delivery of food and essentials becomes more and more integral to our customers' lives. In line with this, we are deepening our efforts to upskill our merchant-partners so that they can better ride the digital wave. We will be launching our GrabMerchant Centre in Singapore, as a next step in how we serve our merchant-partners. This will be the first dedicated one-stop hub for small businesses on our platform, and we will offer solutions not usually available for SMEs. The centre is designed for business consultations, training and operational support, all to help our SME partners learn how to optimise their online presence.

In fact, the centre aspires to replicate and scale the kind of support we’ve provided to merchant-partners such as Gerai Nenek Obek, a Malay food stall in Geylang Serai Market that serves super sedap Nasi Sambal Goreng. Filzah, the owner, shared that her store faced its greatest adversity, since its opening in 1963, when Covid restrictions caused customer footfalls to grind to a halt. We analysed her business figures, and identified untapped opportunities accessible through Islandwide Delivery. We also coached her on how to market her stall with our Ad Manager, a self-serve tool that drives awareness and sales through in-app ads. Filzah’s sales more than tripled in 3 months!

Photo Caption: DPM Lawrence Wong took additional time to chat with Grab merchant-partners. (L-R) Anthony Tan, Yip Tur Min, Shannon Lua (Butter Studio), DPM Lawrence Wong, and Filzah Miranti Binte Mohd Dawood (Gerai Nenek Obek), Muhammad Khairunnizam bin Jasni.

Second, we are focused on developing hyperlocal tech to solve problems for Southeast Asia.?

GrabMaps, our in-house map and location-based technology, is an example. Conventional digital maps often omit the small alleys and side streets found in many Southeast Asian cities like Bangkok or Jakarta. So we decided to build our own solution, leveraging crowdsourced data from our vast fleet of driver-partners, who are travelling every road that matters, every day. This allowed us to build an accurate, hyperlocal view of Southeast Asia that few have! Since starting GrabMaps five years ago, we've helped map over 800,000 km of missing roads in Southeast Asia, including the little lorongs. GrabMaps helps our driver-partners be more productive, while our consumers get their food or reach their destinations faster.

Photo Caption: A Grab delivery-partner capturing street imagery with his KartaCam on his helmet.

Another example is how Grab was started 10 years ago to tackle the problem of transport safety, and today, more than 99.99% of ALL our rides occur without any incident. In fact our regional accident rates are 79% better than the Singapore Land Transport Authority’s Quality of Service Standard. As we look to the future, we will continue to untangle complex, societal problems in Southeast Asia, for today AND tomorrow.

Finally, we are investing in and creating equal opportunities for Southeast Asian talent development.?

We are fostering a strong pipeline of local tech talent. Seven years ago, in 2015, we were one of the first companies in the “Internet tech” space to invest in an R&D centre in Singapore. It was a decision many questioned -- we were told the talent pool was too small -- but we did it anyway. This was because of the strong support provided by the Singapore government, as well as our belief in the longer-term benefits of building hyperlocal tech, and the resolve to develop strong local tech talent along the way.?

Today, we have nearly 3,000 Grabbers in Singapore. We have eight R&D centres both in the Southeast Asian countries where we operate, as well as in the global tech hubs. There is a ton of global collaboration and cross-learning.

Photo Caption: Our local tech talent based in our R&D centres right here in Southeast Asia. (L-R) Su Chern Teo (Principal Product Strategist), Cheryl Goh (Group Head of Marketing and Sustainability), Chin Yin Ong (Chief People Officer), and Benjamin Chan (Senior Product Management Leader, PayLater Activation & Credit)

Extending this ethos, we believe that education is the backbone to the future of our region, and is a fundamental right that should be enjoyed by all. Hence, we're launching a new GrabScholar programme that aims to award over 2,000 scholarships and bursaries annually to nurture Southeast Asia’s future workforce. The programme is part of our GrabforGood Fund, and we will disburse university scholarships and educational bursaries to underprivileged students across all the countries in which we operate in Southeast Asia.

Over the years, Grab has sponsored scholarships and bursaries under various initiatives. Mr Tang Jiu Hai has been a Grab driver-partner for eight years, and he is the proud father of one of our Grab Emerald Circle Scholarship recipients. He shared with us that having come from a humble background, he would like to give his children more opportunities in life. His son Wymann, is a medical school student at NUS’ School of Medicine, and will be graduating soon. In fact, Mr. Tang is here with us today. Mr. Tang, thank you for partnering with us for all these years, and we wish your son the very best!

Photo Caption: Primary school children of Grab driver-partners receiving their bursary grants at the Grab Emerald Circle Scholarship & Bursary Award Ceremony 2022.

In closing, we would like to express our gratitude to all of you for journeying with us through the last 10 years. We achieved our 10 billionth journey on 4 July this year, making it a happy convergence of serving 10 billion rides and orders in 10 years. We’ve crossed this milestone, only with your unwavering trust, partnership and support. Together, let’s continue to leverage tech for good and create opportunities for everyone to grow with the digital economy, to shape a better, and more sustainable Southeast Asia. Thank you very much!