Alibaba, co-founded by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, is planning to invest $3 billion in ride-hailing giant Grab, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing anonymous sources.
One of Bloomberg's sources said the Chinese ecommerce giant plans to use a portion of the funds to acquire some of the Grab stock held by Uber. California-based Uber gave up its operations in Southeast Asia in 2018 in return for a 27.5 percent stake in Grab's business.
Alibaba already has a sizeable investment in Lazada, one of the region's largest ecommerce platforms. The deal with Grab will potentially grant Lazada access to a much wider network of consumers, one of the sources said.
There has been no comment yet from Alibaba, Grab, or Uber.
The $3 billion investment is about a fifth of Grab's last known valuation of $14 billion. Founded in Malaysia but now based in Singapore, Grab has expanded its offerings to include food delivery, financial services, and mobile payments in a bid to become a so-called "super app."
However, it has not been spared from the effects pf the coronavirus pandemic, with its CEO Anthony Tan saying the company is facing its "single-biggest crisis."
The company announced a five percent reduction in staff last June as it cut costs amid slower growth.