SINGAPORE, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Southeast Asia's top ride-hailing and delivery firm, Grab, is betting on artificial intelligence and expansion of new services such as online groceries and financial products to triple profit by 2028, the company's president told Reuters.
Grab has set goals for the next three years of growing revenue by more than 20% each year and tripling EBITDA to $1.5 billion in 2028 from last year's level, President and Chief Operating Officer Alex Hungate said in an interview at the company's Singapore headquarters.
Ride‑hailing in Southeast Asia has shifted from subsidy‑fuelled expansion to a profitability push, as companies contend with rising operating costs while looking to AI-optimised super‑apps to monetise bundling rides with deliveries and financial services.
Nasdaq-listed Grab earlier this month announced its first-ever full-year net profit with its 2025 results, 14 years after it was founded and following billions of dollars in fundraising. However, the company's forecasts for 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA fell short of Wall Street estimates, sending shares lower. The stock is down more than 15% this year, while Uber is down 11% and Lyft is down 31%.
In a research note this week, Huatai Securities said higher investment in autonomous vehicle partnerships and AI could weigh on profitability, and flagged risks including "slower-than-expected improvement in user penetration and macroeconomic volatility".
Grab aims to achieve its 2028 targets by getting more efficiency from its main app and delivery network, Hungate said. As users already use Grab frequently, it can bundle services such as mobility, food delivery and groceries at a lower cost, he added.
The company, which operates in more than 900 cities across Southeast Asia, is also expanding its financial services offerings, and can use its data to underwrite loans more precisely than traditional banks typically can, according to Hungate.
Grab has taken "toeholds" outside Southeast Asia, including its acquisition in U.S. wealth platform Stash, he added.
Hungate said Grab's "first and best" use of cash is reinvesting in Southeast Asia to drive organic growth, although the company is open to select acquisitions.
He said there are no plans currently for a second listing, and there was "no update" on media reports concerning a potential merger with smaller Indonesian rival GoTo.
Grab is exploring building AI agents to foster loyalty, with automated assistants for drivers and merchants, he added.
Even as Grab works with foundational model providers such as OpenAI, Hungate said the company would prefer touse their technology to build its own agents rather than integrating with popular chatbots such as ChatGPT.
"We think that our brand and the frequency with which customers use us will mean that the agents that we deploy will be ones that do a better job for them," he said.
(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Jun Yuan Yong; Editing by Kevin Buckland)
