Grab acquires Indonesian e-commerce platform Kudo

Grab, a ride-hailing and mobile payments platform in Southeast Asia, has entered into an agreement to acquire Kudo, the leading O2O (online to offline) e-commerce platform in Indonesia.Upon closing, the Kudo team and platform will be integrated with Grab’s proprietary mobile payments platform, GrabPay. Kudo’s O2O platform enables Indonesia’s unbanked consumers to shop online by connecting them with online merchants and service providers via Kudo’s network of more than 400,000 authorized agents in 500 towns and cities across Indonesia.GrabPay’s reach across Indonesia’s major cities will complement Kudo’s strong presence across Indonesia’s smaller cities and rural areas. Grab plans to support and accelerate the expansion of Kudo’s agent network while also leveraging Kudo’s reach to bring more riders, drivers and GrabPay users onto the Grab platform.Additionally, Grab and Kudo also plan to explore opportunities to grow Kudo’s financial services offering, including insurance and consumer loans.“Kudo is revolutionising how consumers in Indonesia pay for goods and services, and we are very pleased to welcome them to the Grab family,” Ming Maa, president of Grab said.“Combining Kudo’s innovative O2O e-commerce solution and extensive agent network with GrabPay and Grab’s massive and active customer base will advance our mission of providing millions of people across Indonesia with increased access to convenient cashless payments and new income opportunities, while also unlocking compelling new ways to boost online spending. Kudo’s integration represents an important first step in our ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ plan to provide all Indonesians an opportunity to move into the digital economy.”“Grab shares our vision of creating payments solutions that empower the unbanked to benefit from the rapid growth of ecommerce, and we look forward to embarking on the next stage of our growth as part of the Grab team,” said Albert Lucius, CEO of Kudo. “Given that GrabPay is already one of the most widely-used payments platforms in Indonesia, this acquisition creates immediate synergies with our existing business. We are excited to work together to bring the ease and convenience of cashless payments to more Indonesians than ever before.”This acquisition marks the first investment of Grab’s recently announced ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ 2020 master plan, a commitment to invest US$700 million in Indonesia over the next four years to further develop its digital economy through the promotion of technology innovation, driving ‘technopreneurship’ in mobile technologies and financial services, and improving access to mobile payments and financing opportunities.In November 2016, Grab announced the launch of GrabPay Credits in select markets across Southeast Asia to encourage a move towards a cashless society and improve safety by reducing dependence on physical cash. By partnering with banks across the region, GrabPay Credits enables consumers to book Grab rides through cashless transactions, even without a credit card, and use promo code discounts exclusive to GrabPay.Kudo was established in July 2014 by Albert Lucius, a former analyst at Goldman Sachs and product engineer at Apple, and Agung Nugroho, a former consultant at Boston Consulting Group.