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Rumours about Grab acquiring Kudo has been going around Indonesian startup scene since February 2017

Grab CEO and Co-Founder Anthony Tan (left) with Kudo CEO Albert Lucius

Rumours have been circulating around Indonesian startup communities since February 2017 that Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab has acquired Indonesian O2O e-commerce platform Kudo.

After a period of silence, today Grab finally confirmed that it has signed an agreement to acquire Kudo.

“This transaction will expand Grab’s payments ecosystem to support massive growth in online consumer spending in Indonesia, and is the company’s first investment under its recently-announced ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ 2020 master plan,” according to a press statement by the company.

Kudo is an e-commerce platform that allows unbanked customers to shop online through the help of an individual agent. Upon closing, Grab stated that the Kudo team will join Grab and the Kudo platform will be integrated with Grab’s existing payments ecosystem.

“Grab will also support and accelerate the expansion of Kudo’s agent network across Indonesia, and leverage Kudo’s reach to bring more riders, and drivers and GrabPay users onto the Grab platform,” the company stated.

The two companies are also exploring opportunities to grow Kudo’s financial services offerings which include insurance and consumer loans.

Grab did not reveal how much it has acquired Kudo for, though the deal had been reported to be valued over US$100 million.

Also Read: Grab reportedly raising US$1.5B, racing to beat Go-Jek and Uber for market dominance

Grab also announced the appointment of Jason Thompson as its new Head of GrabPay, the ride-hailing startup’s cashless payment solution.

Thompson was the Managing Director EMEA & Asia for e-payment service Euronet. He has more than 15 years of experience with leadership roles at companies such as Microsoft and Canon.

Thompson will be based in Singapore.

Head of GrabPay Jason Thompson

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Images Credit: Grab

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