Grab will invest US$150mil in AI to build regional super app

Hooi Ling Tan, co-founder of Grab, speaks during the Bloomberg Sooner Than You Think technology event in Singapore, on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. Grab will invest $150 million into artificial intelligence research, staffing and development over the next year to boost its own competing app and services, said Tan. Photographer: Paul Miller/Bloomberg

South-East Asian ride-hailing startup Grab Holdings Inc intends to invest US$150mil (RM628.59mil) in artificial intelligence and hiring more engineers over the next year, accelerating an expanding business that now includes food delivery, digital payments and digital content.

Grab, in hot competition with local rival Gojek to become South-East Asia’s do-it-all super app, outlined for the first time a blueprint for its use and deployment of AI. It will build on the US$100mil (RM419.06mil) it has previously invested in the technology, said co-founder Tan Hooi Ling, and improve its fraud prevention and natural language processing (NLP) tech.