Founder of Grab – Getting to Know Who Founded Grab and Its Development – Grab is one of the largest
online transportation companies in existence today, where Grab has been operating in a number of countries
in Southeast Asia, for example Singapore, Indonesia and other Asian countries. Behind Grab’s
success, of course, there is the extraordinary figure of Grab’s founder.
Anthony Tan is the name behind the success of an online transportation service called Grab.
Anthony founded an online transportation service with the aim that people can make things easier
quickly and easily. Currently, Grab itself has a number of services, ranging from Grab Express,
Grab Car, Grab Bike, Grab Food, Grab Taxi, and other services.
To find out more about Grab, here is a complete discussion about Grab, starting from the profile of the
founder of Grab, the history of Grab’s founding, the development of Grab, to the key to success according to
Grab’s founder, Anthony Tan. What are you curious about? Let’s pay attention to
the full discussion below.
Grab Founder Profile
Grab was founded by a man born in Malaysia named Anthony Tan. This Anthony figure comes from
Chinese descent. Father and mother Anthony Tan are successful businessmen in their home
country, Malaysia. Even in 2015, Anthony’s father managed to become one of the richest people
in Malaysia.
Anthony Tan is a graduate of a well-known university called Harvard School with a degree he obtained in
2011 as a master. This man of Chinese descent has a desire to build a business in the taxi
sector. Until finally his wish was sparked because of his grandfather’s successful history in
building a taxi business in Malaysia at that time.
Then, at the young age of Anthony Tan, who was 30 years old, Anthony managed to build a new business called
Grab. This was proven when at the age of 38, Grab has become a very successful online
transportation service and is available in almost all countries in Southeast Asia.
The History of the Founding of Grab
The history of the establishment of this grab consists of two things, namely the beginning in Malaysia and
the change of name, which was originally a new service called Myteksi, which changed to Grab.
Here is the discussion.
a. The Beginning in Malaysia
At first, Anthony Tan started the Grab business because he heard concerns from a friend who said that his
friend found it difficult to find a taxi in Malaysia. Hearing this, Anthony Tan felt moved.
Then he thought of providing taxi services easily and quickly.
Until finally, a new service was formed with the name Myteksi. This service has two systems in
the form of a digital ordering and mapping application. This system was created to make it
easier for prospective customers to get a taxi quickly and easily.
The Myteksi service developed by Anthony Tan existed when he was still in education. This
service is one of the systems created to meet the needs of college assignments. However, seeing
the enormous potential of the Myteksi system, it made Anthony Tan even more serious about managing the
application.
At that time, in 2012 Myteksi company was created by Anthony Tan for the first time. With
Myteksi’s headquarters located in the country of Singapore. His presence in Singapore at that
time was because Anthony Tan’s main target was taxi services for Malaysia and Singapore.
b. Changed Name From Myteksi to
Grab
Anthony Tan also repeatedly changed the name of his online transportation company, initially named Myteksi,
changed to Grab Taxi, and finally changed its name to just Grab. In 2012, this company began to
build even more seriously. With its headquarters in Singapore, Grab is quickly recognized by
many people.
Seeing the fairly rapid development of Grab, the founder of Grab, namely Anthony Tan, also has the desire
to increase funding from outside. Then, a foreign company from Singapore named Vertex Venture
Holdings provided funding of up to 10 million dollars to develop Grab as Decacorn.
Following this funding, many capital companies emerged that wanted to participate in it. For
example, funds of 15 million dollars from GGV Capital from China, then Tiger Global from America, which
funded 65 million dollars, and a large capital addition of 250 million dollars from Softbank Corp.
So, that’s the history of the first time the Grab company was founded. Anthony Tan as the
founder of Grab always innovates in providing better services.
Grab developments
Certainly Grab’s current success is inseparable from the long process of development in the field of online
transportation services. Following are the developments of Grab that you need to know about,
including:
a. Grab Development Facility
In 2015, Grab began to actively improve its services. With one of them creating a development
facility. The purpose of this facility is to make Grab more advanced.
The development and research facilities are made at Grab’s business headquarters in Singapore.
At a cost of nearly $100 million, Grab finally has its own research facility.
In its development, Grab brought in a number of experts who have expertise and abilities in the field of
technology. In fact, not only that, Grab also collaborated with a former Facebook engineer
named Wei Zhu.
Of course, this is a very significant input and it is hoped that Wei Zhu can make Grab have a reliable
transportation system.
b. Acquisition To Company
Not only making developer facilities, but Grab has also acquired many companies so that it can have new
innovations. One of the things that had a big influence was his acquisition of Uber in
2018.
Grab wants to unify Uber’s services with Grab’s own services, the merger has proven to be effective and
good in improving Grab’s own services. However, the impact obtained by Grab is that it is
obliged to give 27.5% of its shares to Uber owner named Dara Khosrowshahi.
Even though Grab shares are widely divided, Anthony Tan has always believed that it was necessary to do so.
Considering that Grab has started to enter a number of countries, of course it requires more
manpower and new innovation from Uber itself.
c. Overseas Expansion
This overseas expansion has begun to be carried out by Grab so that Grab is not out of date.
For example, opening a development facility in Seattle, United States.
This step was taken so that Grab can always update the digital world, especially the latest technology from
Uncle Sam’s country. Moreover, with an overseas expansion, Grab can recruit experts directly
from the United States.
Of course, this can support Grab’s operations even better. In fact, this can also have a
positive influence so that the development of Grab in the future will be even better.
The expansion of Grab for the first time in the United States has raised a number of new speculations, namely
Grab’s desire to enter America.
However, this was directly denied by the founder of Grab, namely Anthony Tan. He said that he
just wanted to always be updated on the latest technology. Meanwhile, he is only targeting the
Asian market at the present time.
d. Grab Begins to Enter Indonesia
In recent years, Grab has been very ambitious to provide services in all regions of Asia.
Indonesia itself is one of the most important goals of this transportation company.
Grab successfully entered Indonesian territory in mid-2014.
Even though its arrival brought pros and cons, in reality Grab has now been able to be well received by
Indonesian citizens. Not only that, domestic business actors are currently collaborating a lot
with Grab. With the existence of online transportation called Grab, it is hoped that it can
make the community’s economic development more rapid.
e. Grab Services Until Now
Until now, Grab has become one of the best online transportation services and always innovates by providing
various new services. Examples of services from Grab include Grab Express, Grab Car, Grab Bike,
Grab Food, Grab Taxi, and other services.
Grab has reached almost all countries in Southeast Asia, making Grab the first Decacorn company in
Southeast Asia with a digital basis. The development of Grab is inseparable from the best
service that is always provided by Grab for customers or partners who work with it.
Anthony Tan as a founder of Grab said that his main focus now is to grow Grab’s reach.
Particularly in the Asian region, Anthony Tan has no intention of targeting even bigger markets,
for example the European region. Apart from that, currently Grab has become one of the biggest
companies that almost everyone in Asia knows.
5 Keys to Success According to Grab
Founder, Anthony Tan
There are 5 things that can make Anthony Tan successful and you can emulate them to be able to achieve
success with your own version. According to the founder of Grab, Anthony Tan, the 5 keys to
success are as follows:
a. Do Self-Actualization
As someone who was born into a wealthy family, it does not make Anthony Tan feel safe and only rely on
family business. Even though he is the youngest of 3 (three) siblings, Anthony Tan has never
had a spoiled attitude.
He is precisely the only child who can think far ahead. Then, what’s the result?
When his two older brothers were still in the family business, Anthony Tan was able to set up his
own company.
b. Dare to Take All Risks
Dare to take all risks is not an easy matter. Because you are required to leave something that
you have in order to do everything that is uncertain.
However, without any doubts, Anthony Tan decided to get away from the shadow of his family and set up his
own company. Before starting his business, Anthony Tan actually knew what risks and challenges
he would face later.
Introducing new technology to drivers was not an easy thing at that time. Because, maybe they
will refuse to participate because they don’t know how to run the application.
Even so, all this did not make Anthony Tan feel hopeless and stop walking. He actually has
great confidence that his business will actually be able to run.
c. Always Enthusiastic and Persistent
Without any doubts, Anthony Tan himself visited a number of places that became bases in order to introduce
the application he made to transportation drivers. He goes to malls, gas stations, airports and
other bases to give drivers an understanding of the importance of technology in the future.
Not only that, when Anthony Tan first started his business journey, he also experienced what it was like to
be a call center admin. This was deliberately done in order to provide direct understanding of
the various problems that occur in the field. With criticism and suggestions given by drivers
and customers, Anthony Tan now understands how to improve his business so that it can be even better.
d. Sensitive and Caring for
the Surrounding Environment
In forming a business that can be well received by the wider community is not an easy thing.
You really need to understand what people need and use every day.
Well, you won’t find that if you just stay at home and rely on the internet. You must really
go down into the community to see and know firsthand the problems of the community.
That is what Anthony Tan does. He sees that there are many problems that occur in the field of public
transportation. For example, when you take a metered taxi you will easily be played by drivers
by taking a detour.
Not only that, issues regarding security now often haunt potential customers, especially a woman.
With Grab, Anthony Tan tries to give awareness to the problems that occur in people’s lives.
Anthony Tan provides a solution so you can know the taxi meter from start to finish and always feel
safe when driving.
e. Learn From Every Mistake
Anthony Tan admits that his Grab business doesn’t always run smoothly without any hiccups or obstacles.
Because in 2013, when Grab started to leave Malaysia and was about to enter Manila, the
Philippines. He said that poor management and planning prevented his business from doing well
there.
In fact, there was once a misunderstanding that resulted in the salaries of all drivers not being paid for
1 month. However, this incident always reminds Anthony Tan and makes Anthony Tan a lesson to
this day. According to Anthony Tan, things like that are reminders that can build Anthony Tan
into someone who is not easily satisfied with what he has achieved.
Thus the discussion about Grab, starting from the profile of the founder of Grab, the history of the
founding of Grab, the development of Grab, to the key to success according to the founder of Grab, namely
Anthony Tan. Hopefully the above understanding can provide insight into knowledge and you can
apply it so that it can be useful for you.