Singapore-based Grab has signed definitive agreements to acquire a 60 percent controlling stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, the companies announced on September 15. The first transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval and other customary conditions. It has not yet been completed.
The agreement covers Neuroncredit, the digital finance business known as Atome Financial within Singapore-headquartered Advance Intelligence Group. Atome provides buy now, pay later loans, cash loans, cards and other lending products across Southeast Asia. The initial purchase price includes $260 million of primary growth capital for Atome, rather than consisting entirely of proceeds to existing shareholders
A second purchase depends on Atome’s performance
Grab has agreed with Advance Intelligence Group and other sellers to acquire the remaining 40 percent of Atome Financial approximately two years after the initial deal closes. That later purchase requires its own regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and its price is not fixed today.
Under the announced valuation formula, the second purchase will be tied to Atome’s adjusted earnings and revenue in the six months before that closing. The formula gives a 75 percent weighting to 13 times annualized adjusted EBITDA and a 25 percent weighting to 2.5 times annualized revenue. Its resulting equity valuation is subject to a $2 billion floor and a $4.5 billion cap. At least half of the consideration for the second stage is to be paid in cash. The cap is a future valuation ceiling under the formula, not money Grab has agreed to pay now.
Grab said it will fund the first transaction from its existing cash. If the purchase closes, it plans to consolidate Atome Financial in its financial-services segment, while Atome’s management continues to run the business. Neither the later stake purchase nor the proposed commercial integration should be described as already implemented.
Consumer lending spans five Southeast Asian markets
Grab’s release lists Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand as the markets covered by Atome Financial’s footprint, noting that its Thai exposure is through a minority stake in a joint venture. Grab already has payments, bank and lending operations in parts of the region. The proposed purchase would add Atome’s consumer-facing financing network to those activities.
Atome reported 25 million cumulative transacted users and a network of more than 30,000 brands. The user figure comes from Atome’s unaudited management accounts and refers to people who have transacted over time; it is not a count of active borrowers or monthly users. Grab said Atome had a gross loan portfolio of $1 billion as of June 30, 2026, also based on unaudited figures. A gross portfolio measures outstanding loans before loss provisions and does not indicate how much has been collected or how many new loans have been made.
Grab has its own installment-payment products in Singapore and Malaysia. Its president and chief operating officer Alex Hungate told Reuters that buying Atome could speed an expansion into the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. The announcement does not establish when new products will become available to customers in those markets. Consumer lending remains subject to local licensing, privacy and responsible-lending rules.
Grab revises its 2028 targets
Alongside the deal, Grab projected that its financial-services segment, including Atome if the deal closes on schedule, could produce $500 million of adjusted EBITDA and hold a combined gross loan portfolio exceeding $6 billion by 2028. It also raised its group target to $1.7 billion of adjusted EBITDA and more than 30 percent compound annual revenue growth from 2025 to 2028. These are management forecasts, not results, and adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS measure.
TNGlobal reported on September 11 that Grab was in talks to purchase Atome. The September 15 definitive agreement supplies the stake size, price and conditions absent from that earlier report.
Grab in talks to buy SoftBank-backed fintech firm Atome — report