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Photo credit: Mark Warner.

Malaysia’s public sector pension fund announced today it has invested in Uber. The fund says this is its first direct investment in a foreign company. We have confirmed the announcement with Uber but the size of the deal is undisclosed.

The Kumpulan Wang Persaraan, also known as KWAP, is Malaysia’s retirement fund. It was established in 2007 with the objective of achieving “optimum returns on its investments.”

“This is part of our efforts to become a diversified global investor. Uber is an exciting company that is changing the way the world moves, and we believe ridesharing has huge potential to transform the future of mobility,” KWAP CEO Dato’ Wan Kamaruzaman Bin Wan Ahmad says in a statement.

Uber launched in Malaysia in 2014 and operates in six cities: Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu, and Kuching. The country’s Land Public Transportation Commission (SPAD) announced in August that it would try to push through regulations to include ride-hailing services like Uber and Southeast Asian competitor Grab.

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