Grab, the Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant, is exploring a listing in the US this year that could raise at least $2 billion, Reuters reports. Grab is a major ride-hailing service in the Southeast Asian region and also operates businesses in many other areas such as payments, food delivery, and on-demand courier services.

The reports of Grab looking to go public comes on the heels of reports of its major rival, Gojek, seeking to merge with another Southeast Asian internet giant, Tokopedia, and then heading for the public markets.

Grab is one of the biggest-funded technology companies in Asia and globally at large, with a whopping $10 billion in venture funding raised. It’s valued at over $16 billion by its investors, making it the most valuable private technology company in Southeast Asia.

A US IPO for Grab would make it one of the few Southeast Asian technology companies to trade on a US stock exchange. For now, the only tech company with major operations in Southeast Asia that trades on a US stock exchange is Sea Ltd, known for its Garena (gaming), Shopee (e-commerce), and SeaMoney (fintech) brands and with a market cap of $115 billion.

A Grab IPO would deliver exits for its many private backers, which include the likes of SoftBank, Toyota, Microsoft, Honda, Tiger Global, GGV, and the Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.

Before now, Grab was earlier reported to have held merger talks with its main rival Gojek, talks that appear to have fizzled out.

Notably, a $2 billion+ initial public offering (IPO) would mark the largest such offering in the US by a Southeast Asian company and it seems Grab would be the one to mark that record.

Photo: Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan by World Economic Forum is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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