Microsoft invests in Grab; together aim to conquer the Southeast Asian on-demand services market with Azure’s Intelligent Cloud

Microsoft announced, yesterday, that it is collaborating with Grab, the leading on-demand transportation, mobile payments and online-to-offline services platform in Southeast Asia, as part of a strategic cloud partnership. The partnership aims to transform the delivery of digital services and mobility by using Microsoft’s state-of-the-art expertise in machine learning and other artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

“Our partnership with Grab opens up new opportunities to innovate in both a rapidly evolving industry and growth region. We’re excited to team up to transform the customer experience as well as enhance the delivery of digital services for the millions of users who rely on Grab for safe and affordable transport, food and package delivery, mobile payments, and financial services”, mentioned Peggy Johnson, executive vice president at Microsoft.

Grab is a Singapore-based technology company delivering ride-hailing, ride sharing, and logistics services via its app in Singapore and neighboring Southeast Asian nations. It currently operates in 235 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries. Moreover, Grab’s digital wallet, GrabPay, is the top player in Southeast Asia.

This partnership is expected to help both companies explore a wide range of innovative deep technology projects such as mobile facial recognition with built-in AI for drivers and customers, using Microsoft Azure’s fraud detection services to prevent fraudulent transactions on Grab’s platform, and so on. These projects aim to transform the experience for Grab’s users, driver-partners, merchants as well as agents.

Grab will be adopting Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform and Microsoft is set to make a strategic investment in Grab; the magnitude of which currently undisclosed.

“As a global technology leader, Microsoft’s investment into Grab highlights our position as the leading homegrown technology player in the region. We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft in the pursuit of enhancing on-demand transportation and seamless online-to-offline experiences for users”, said Ming Maa, president of Grab.

There are a few other areas of collaborations between Grab and Microsoft. These include Microsoft Outlook integration, Microsoft Kaizala, In-car solutions, and integration of Microsoft Rewards Gift Cards.

For more information, check out the official Microsoft blog.