BENDERRAnews, 20/3/19 (Singapore): According to TechniAsia, speaking at the “Money 20/20 conference” in Singapore today, Reuben Lai, senior managing director of the ride-hailing company’s Grab Financial unit, said that the suite will be customizable according to clients’ needs.
Grab will offer payments tech, microloans, and micro-insurance to small businesses as a single package called Grow With Grab.
So, Grab Financial was launched at the same event last year, when the company unveiled partnerships with Japanese consumer finance provider Credit Saison and Swiss insurer Chubb.
Grab later began offering personal loans to micro-entrepreneurs on its platform, but Lai said that Grow With Grab marks the first time that the “super app” will be able to expand its lending capabilities to small and medium-sized businesses.
Micro-insurance options
The suite will also include micro-insurance options to provide financial security for entrepreneurs and their employees, as well as comprehensive access to GrabPay’s technology to provide enhanced payments options for their customers.
Lai also revealed updates to the GrabPay digital wallet.
It will be integrated with point-of-sale systems to make it easier for merchants to accept GrabPay transfers, with Singaporean food and beverage chains Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Paris Baguette the first to trial the service.
It will also be made available as an online payments option, Pay With GrabPay, with several of Grab’s ecommerce partners.
Southeast Asian online marketplaces Qoo10 and 11Street are among the first to have added Pay With GrabPay to their sites, while merchant gateways including Adyen, Boku, iPay88, and Dragonpay, and leisure providers including Singapore’s Cathay Cineplexes and the Philippines’ SM Cinema, have also signed up.
‘Pay Later’
Another new feature launched as part of Grab’s joint venture with Credit Saison, named Pay Later, will give customers a “virtual credit card,” enabling them to spread out payments over instalments at zero-percent interest.
The updates allow “consumers who never had access [to ecommerce] because they didn’t have a bank account or credit card to get online and transact using the same GrabPay wallet,” said Lai.
Another new feature launched as part of Grab’s joint venture with Credit Saison, named Pay Later, will give customers a “virtual credit card,” enabling them to spread out payments over instalments at zero-percent interest.
The updates allow “consumers who never had access [to ecommerce] because they didn’t have a bank account or credit card to get online and transact using the same GrabPay wallet,” said Lai.
Grab’s archrival Go-Jek began trialing a virtual credit card service – named PayLater – in its Go-Pay wallet in September last year.
OVO, Indonesian partner
Following Lai on stage was Jason Thompson, former head of GrabPay and now CEO at OVO Grab’s Indonesian payments partner.
Thompson said that OVO is rolling out Pay Later as a feature for its Indonesian users, while a new partnership with Bareksa will allow users to invest in mutual funds within the OVO app.
Thompson also confirmed that OVO has acquired peer-to-peer lending startup Taralite, giving its users another opportunity to grow their wealth and support small businesses at the same time.
OVO had originally launched Pay Later earlier this year for customers of ecommerce site Tokopedia. Taralite provided credit to enable the service.
Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling was afterwards joined on stage by Wayne Xu, president at ZhongAn International, to expand on the joint venture between the two companies that was announced back in January.
Tan revealed that the joint venture has begun offering insurance products to Grab drivers, including coverage for prolonged medical leave and personal accidents. (B-TiA/jr)
