Grab Philippines to expand services to 40 more cities

GRAB PHILIPPINES plans to expand its services to 40 additional cities this year as it pushes broader digitalization efforts across the country.

“We are launching another 40 cities this year, just to basically digitize as many cities as possible,” Grab Philippines Country Head Ronald Roda told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the company’s economic forum on Monday.

He said the expansion will cover transport, delivery, and financial services, depending on what local governments allow in each area.

“It is different per city. It really depends on what the city allows us. The easiest to launch is deliveries, followed by transport, and then lastly is financial services,” he said.

“We usually lead with delivery because that’s the easy way and we have national partners to rely on,” he added.

Grab Philippines currently offers transportation, food and package delivery, and financial services. According to its website, the company operates in about 25 cities nationwide.

Mr. Roda said the company has seen growing opportunities tied to the digitalization of grocery and retail services.

“When a crisis hits, there’s ultimately opportunities. The first opportunity is really the digitization of groceries. Similar to the pandemic where food delivery was the thing, these days it’s really bringing fresh produce, then ultimately retail into digital,” he said.

“And that’s what we have been focusing on for the past three months,” he added.

Grab Philippines is also looking to expand its consumer cash loan business, which it launched in December last year.

“We have been very slow in giving out loans, but now I think it’s scaled because we’ve gotten our group in terms of what’s the right credit policy and all of that,” Mr. Roda said.

“So, we’re looking to scale lending mainly because the Grab base is fairly affluent,” he added. — Ashley Erika O. Jose