Uber merging with China’s Didi Chuxing led many to believe that the fierce rivalry between the cab aggregators, which forced both the companies to shell out billions over the Chinese market, finally ended.
However, with reports surfacing that Ddi Chuxing and SoftBank Group Corp. are backing a new round of funding in the South-east Asian ride-sharing service Grab, the plot takes an interesting twist.
This means that Uber has not only lost the battle in China with Didi buying out its operations in the country and becoming a shareholder, but their war chest would further be tested when the two companies now clash in the South-east Asian market, which is not yet quite familiar with the competition.
The round is expected to close as early as next week, with the investment exceeding $600 million and pushing the total amount of funds available to Grab past $1 billion, say sources.
Grab is rumoured to raise a separate $400 million in the following weeks. Grab CEO Anthony Tan told media that he expected Uber to concentrate on the relatively untapped Southeast Asian market after agreeing to sell its China business.
Uber has recently revealed plans to redeploy 150 engineers from its Chinese operations to other key markets, which includes Grab’s backyard.
According to CB Insights, Grab operates in 30 cities across six countries and was valued at $1.5 billion in December 2014.
The alliance that Didi forged last year with Grab also included India’s Ola and the US’s Lyft Inc. It still remains unclear what impact the Didi-Uber deal will have on the other members of that tie-up.
