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Independent Singapore
24-05-2025
- Business
- Independent Singapore
Grab's AI Centre of Excellence to drive innovation and inclusivity in SEA and create 50 high-value roles for locals
SINGAPORE: Grab announced the launch of its first Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI COE) on Friday (May 23), supported by the Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), to speed up AI-driven solutions across Southeast Asia. The centre, located at Tower B of GrabHQ@One-North, will focus on improving accessibility, boosting productivity and growth, and contributing to smart nation building in the region. It is also expected to create at least 50 high-value roles in product innovation, engineering, data science, and analytics this year. These roles will allow Singaporeans to work on AI solutions that address regional challenges and could be scaled globally. According to The Edge Singapore , Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong attended the launch event, along with Grab co-founder and group CEO Anthony Tan, president and COO Alex Hungate, and CTO Suthen Thomas. One of the key innovations showcased at the launch was a voice assistant feature that allows visually impaired users to book Grab rides through voice commands. The feature was built in collaboration with the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH). See also It's Glowtime! What to expect from Apple's iPhone 16 'glow up' The tool uses OpenAI models that Grab fine-tuned to make the speech-to-text model work better for locals. The team used around 80,000 Singaporean voice samples and names of points of interest, boosting the tool's accuracy in recognising local accents and building names from 46% to 89%. Grab said it will launch a voice donation feature in June, letting Singapore users share voice samples to help make the Voice Assistant more intuitive and inclusive. Grab also introduced its Driver AI Companion for drivers to get real-time tips on booking spots, efficient routes, and reward programmes based on driving patterns, and a Merchant AI Assistant to provide support for small businesses to grow both online and offline. Mr Suthen Thomas said, 'With over 1,000 AI models powering our platform, we've seen firsthand how we can leverage AI to improve lives. Recent advancements in AI hold the promise to transform how we interact with technology, foster innovation, and bridge digital divides.' Philbert Gomez, Executive Director and Head of Digital Industry Singapore, added, 'The establishment of Grab's AI Centre of Excellence underscores Singapore's vision to be the world's most AI-driven economy.' /TISG Read also: Grab Singapore eyes self-driving cars to 'fill the gaps' in less popular locations
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What uncertainty? Grab upgrades forecast and claims tougher economy might help its ride-hailing business
Grab, the Singapore-based ride-hailing giant, is upgrading its forecast after a better-than-expected first quarter. The company generated $773 million in revenue for the first quarter of the year, an 18% increase compared to the same period a year earlier. Grab posted strong double-digit percentage growth in its three business segments: mobility, deliveries and financial services. It earned $10 million in quarterly profit, compared to a $115 million loss a year earlier. Grab also hiked its forecast for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to as much as $480 million, up from a previous projection of $470 million. CEO Anthony Tan said in prepared remarks that the company managed to sustain 'robust demand growth momentum' even despite the effects of Lunar New Year and Ramadan. The Lunar New Year and Ramadan period usually see slower demand due to people taking extended holidays for the former and reduced social activities for the latter. Grab's optimism comes even amid uncertain global macroeconomic conditions, driven by U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies. Growth across the Southeast Asia region is likely to slow due to U.S. tariffs, with Singapore now warning that it might report no growth this year. In his prepared remarks, Tan said that Grab's AI and tech capabilities will position the firm as a 'counter-cyclical company that can weather through uncertainties.' But Grab's gig economy model could also help make it more recession-proof. Chief operating officer Alex Hungate, on the earnings call, noted that both the platform and its partners have adjusted to past economic downturns. Grab will get new drivers as people try to hedge against potential job losses, he explained. More drivers will reduce price surges during busy periods, thus encouraging more use of the platform. 'It's kind of a self-correcting, almost counter-cyclical approach that we see from the platform during those types of downturns,' he said. Hungate added that Grab has yet to see any sign of consumer weakness. Grab had 44.5 million monthly transacting users for the quarter ending March, a 16% increase from the same period a year ago. Grab shares, which trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange, are up almost 3% pre-market. The company is up around 1% for the year thus far. In early April, the company announced a slew of new products to increase consumer spending such as a way to pool food delivery orders with strangers and advanced bookings for airport pickups. This story was originally featured on
Business Insider
30-04-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Grab Holdings reports Q1 EPS 1c vs (3c) last year
Reports Q1 revenue $773M, consensus $766.73M. Reports Q1 on-demand GMV up 16%. 'We had a strong set of results to start the year, sustaining robust demand growth momentum to achieve yet another quarterly record number of users on our platform, even amid the seasonal demand impacts from the Lunar New Year and Ramadan fasting period. We also grew the number of active partners on our platform, and now have more active driver- and merchant-partners than ever before,' said Anthony Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Grab. 'While we are cognizant that there are increased levels of uncertainty in the global macroeconomic landscape, we will continue to harness AI and our technological capabilities to improve the reliability and affordability of our offerings. This will increasingly position us as a counter-cyclical company that can weather through uncertainties in the macroeconomic landscape.' Protect Your Portfolio Against Market Uncertainty
Business Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Grab raises full-year adjusted Ebitda guidance after posting US$24 million profit in Q1
[SINGAPORE] Grab on Wednesday (Apr 30) reported net profit of US$24 million for the first quarter ended Mar 31, 2025, reversing from a US$104 million loss in the previous corresponding period. The turnaround was driven by higher revenue across all segments, improved operating loss and higher net finance income which included US$33 million in foreign exchange gains, it said Revenue for the three months was US$773 million, up 18 per cent from US$653 million, surpassing the average analyst estimate of US$766 million in a Bloomberg poll. On-demand gross merchandise value grew 16 per cent year on year to US$4.9 billion from US$4.2 billion, due to on-demand monthly transacting users increasing by 18 per cent, as well as the total number of on-demand transactions growing 21 per cent. The Nasdaq-listed group's on-demand businesses cover its mobility and deliveries segments. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter came in at US$106 million, up 71 per cent from US$62 million. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up In an earnings briefing after the results release, group chief executive officer Anthony Tan said the group will raise its adjusted Ebitda forecast for FY2025 to between US$460 million and US$480 million. This represents an expected 47 to 53 per cent on-year climb from the group's adjusted Ebitda in FY2024. It previously guided for adjusted full-year Ebitda of US$440 million to US$470 million, which represented a 41 to 50 per cent on-year growth. Chief operating officer Alex Hungate noted that the Singapore-based group saw strong demand under online grocery delivery arm GrabMart in March and April, resulting in monthly transacting users growing sequentially in the first quarter. The growth came despite the first quarter being seasonally soft, coupled with impact from the Chinese New Year celebrations and Ramadan fasting period. GrabMart's strong performance comes as the group was able to 'operationalise' the platform to provide groceries and food for people at home during Ramadan, replacing dining out, he said. For the first quarter, the mobility segment posted revenue of US$282 million, up 15 per cent from US$247 million. Meanwhile, the deliveries segment added 18 per cent to its top line at US$415 million, from US$350 million in the corresponding year-ago period. The group is 'trending healthily' in line with expectations, and anticipates a rebound in quarter-on-quarter growth rates across mobility and deliveries segments in the second quarter, said Hungate. Counter-cyclical approach Hungate noted that Grab does not yet see signs of consumer weakness, noting that the platform 'works on a self-adjusting basis' during a downturn in economic conditions. 'A number of new drivers will join the platform as a cushion against potential job losses, (so) we tend to get an improvement in supply conditions, which in turn reduce surge at key moments,' he said. This will then encourage more consumption and a higher use of the platform by consumers, he said. 'It's kind of a self-correcting, almost counter-cyclical approach that we see from the platform during those types of downturns,' he added. In April, the Land Transport Authority issued a 10-year street-hail service operator licence to the company through GrabCab, a subsidiary of the company's rental business GrabRentals. The company said that the increased supply of vehicles would improve efficiency of ride hailing for passengers. Meanwhile, Grab does not anticipate margin losses from recently announced new products to its platform, as it focuses on making the marketplace more efficient. For example, Shared Saver, which allows users to start a group order with people nearby, offers a lower cost of delivery for the consumer while also driving volume improvements as it amortises the same delivery cost across multiple consumers, said Hungate. 'So it's actually no extra cost to Grab, or to the marketplace,' he said. The group also received 'productivity gains' in this quarter from artificial intelligence (AI) through its management of direct marketing costs, he said. 'I think the way in which we can fine-tune our promotions and our incentives using AI is demonstrably better than it was even six months ago,' he said. Hungate highlighted that the group's monthly transacting users make up around 6 per cent of the total population of South-east Asia, and the management team is 'very focused on the other 94 per cent'. 'We think there is a lot of opportunity, and particularly with these new, affordable products, we intend to keep expanding the perimeter of our ecosystem as our main focus,' he said. Under Grab's financial services, its loan portfolio for the quarter increased 56 per cent to US$566 million, from US$363 million. Revenue for the segment grew 36 per cent to $75 million in Q1 FY2025, from US$55 million in Q1 FY2024. This growth was 'primarily driven by increased contributions mainly from lending across GrabFin and digital banks, and further optimisation of payments incentive spend', said the group. Shares of Grab last traded at US$4.79 on Tuesday in the US, up US$0.03 or 0.6 per cent, before the results were announced.
Business Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Grab returns to the black with US$24 million gain in Q1; sees profit for the full year
[SINGAPORE] Grab reported a net profit of US$2 million for the first quarter ended Mar 31, 2025, reversing from a US$104 million loss in the previous corresponding period. The turnaround was driven by higher revenue across all segments, improved operating loss and higher net finance income which included US$33 million in foreign exchange gains, it said. The Nasdaq-listed Singapore company's revenue rose 18 per cent to US$773 million on a constant currency basis. It slashed operating loss from US$75 million previously to US$21 million. 'We had a strong set of results to start the year, sustaining robust demand growth momentum to achieve yet another quarterly record number of users on our platform, even amid the seasonal demand impacts from the Lunar New Year and Ramadan fasting period,' said Anthony Tan, chief executive officer of Grab. The company reported a business outlook of 19 to 22 per cent growth in revenue on the year for FY 2025, projecting US$3.33 billion to US$3.4 billion. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to climb 47 to 53 per cent on the year to between US$460 million and US$480 million, an increase from the previous projection of 41 to 50 per cent. 'Looking ahead to the second quarter, we expect to drive strong, sequential on-demand gross merchandise value and overall revenue growth, while remaining disciplined on costs as a company,' said Peter Oey, chief financial officer of Grab. Shares of Grab last traded at US$4.79 on Wednesday (Apr 30) morning, up US$0.03 or 0.63 per cent, before the results were announced.
