Didi, SoftBank lead US$600 mil-plus round for Grab

(Aug 3): China’s Didi Chuxing and SoftBank Group Corp. are leading a new round of funding in the Southeast Asian ride-sharing service Grab that could exceed US$600 million ($805 million), according to people familiar with the deal.

The round may close as early as this week and would push the total amount of funds available to Grab past $1 billion, said the people, who declined to be identified because the deal is private. Grab is seeking to raise a separate US$400 million in the following weeks, said one of the people. Grab declined to comment, while SoftBank and Didi didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The talks signal that the truce between Didi and Uber Technologies Inc. in China this week is far from a global accord. Didi bought out Uber’s operations in the country and became a shareholder in the US company, but the Chinese firm’s investment in Grab shows it will continue to clash with Uber in Southeast Asia and perhaps other regions. Didi, which struck an alliance with Grab last year, had raised a warchest of more than US$10 billion for its campaign in China.

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