SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab disclosed on Monday that Japan’s Honda Motor Co had invested in the firm, as part of a $750 million funding announced previously, to collaborate on motorbike-hailing services. This is the latest tie-up of its kind in the auto industry, where carmakers such as Volkswagen, Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors have also struck deals with ride-sharing firms to hedge against a shift in the vehicle market away from private ownership. Grab, the biggest rival to ride-sharing service Uber Technologies Inc in Southeast Asia, said Honda had agreed to invest an undisclosed amount in the firm, and the two would form a partnership to develop the ride-sharing technology and related driver education programmes.
The Honda investment is a part of the $750 million funding announced in September, said Ming Maa, President at Grab, which provides services such as taxi and motorbike-hailing, car-pooling, delivery and mobile payments. “We are in the planning stages on exactly what a full partnership will look like, and there are many different prongs of that. One prong would obviously include selling Honda motorbikes within the region,” Maa said. — Reuters
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