Southeast Asia’s Grab takes a ride to $40 billion SPAC listing

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery platform Grab Holdings lists on Nasdaq via the world’s largest special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal worth $40 billion.

Here are some milestones for the Singapore-headquartered company:

2011: Anthony Tan and co-founder Tan Hooi Ling create Grab in a Harvard Business School venture competition plan

2012: Launches as MyTeksi taxi booking service in Malaysia

2013: Expands to the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore as GrabTaxi

April 2014: Announces Series A funding

June 2014: Launches in Indonesia

December 2014: Japan’s SoftBank invests $250 million in a funding round

August 2015: Becomes a unicorn after $350 million funding round

December 2015: Announces a strategic partnership with other ride-hailing companies Ola, Didi, and Lyft that competed against Uber

January 2016: Rebrands to Grab from GrabTaxi to reflect expanding services

November 2017: Launches GrabPay payments service for third-party transactions

March 2018: Announces acquisition of Uber’s business in Southeast Asia through an all-share deal, Uber becomes a strategic shareholder

May 2018: Pilots GrabFood delivery service

July 2018: Unveils “superapp” strategy that provides a range of services under one platform

March 2019: Reaches valuation of about $14 billion

December 2020: Wins digital full bank license in Singapore in a partnership with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd

April 2021: Agrees to list on Nasdaq through a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Altimeter Growth Corp securing a valuation of nearly $40 billion (This story has been refiled to correct slug to LISTING, not IPO; no change to story text)

(Compiled by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by William Mallard)