Grab took a big step forward today in its financial services ambitions by rolling out its first ever personal lending and investment products.
Today’s launch for GrabInvest brings three new offerings to Grab’s ride-hailing app:
- AutoInvest allows users to “invest as they spend,” as Grab describes it. Eligible GrabPay transactions include rides taken with Grab, GrabFood and GrabMart orders, GrabPay card payments, and QR payments to merchants
- Loans are available via a new third-party personal loans marketplace
- Buy-now-pay-later payment plans for select online stores
Here’s when and where the three things will be available:
- AutoInvest will launch in early September and will be available to eligible users in Singapore, the company said today in a statement
- Loans marketplace hits Singapore first and then Malaysia at some point later this year, a Grab representative tells Technode Global
- Pay-later service arrives in Singapore and Malaysia in October, but there’s no word on which ecommerce sites will support it
See: Grab and the future of retail
Hotly-anticipated launch
GrabInvest’s rollout follows other finance-related products that Grab has launched over the years, starting with its wallet for online payments, and more recently adding insurance offerings. Grab also announced today that its first hospitalization insurance plan will launch in Indonesia “in the coming months.”
Today’s GrabInvest rollout has been hotly anticipated since February, when Grab acquired a Singaporean fintech startup named Bento. That startup’s founder, Chandrima Das, now has the title head of wealth at Grab Financial Group.
“As we build out our wealth management offerings […] we aim to better provide millions across SEA with the opportunity to invest in financial products traditionally limited to affluent individuals and institutional investors,” Das said today.
GrabInvest’s debut moves Grab ahead of Gojek in the personal financial services aspect of their long-running rivalry. Gojek has so far only rolled out one such product in Indonesia, called Goinvestasi, which allows users to invest in gold.