Grab hungers to be Asean consumers' daily staple as it unveils food delivery service

RIDE hailing startup Grab on Monday unveiled a food delivery service as it served up a vision to become the "everyday app" for South-east Asian consumers.

Grab Singapore head Lim Kell-Jay said: "As we build out an everyday app that offers transport, food and package delivery, and mobile payments, Grab is focused on creating a seamless experience and unlocking value for our customers by offering complementary services on one platform."

Grab announced an islandwide beta version of GrabFood in Singapore, through which consumers can order food on demand from "thousands of merchants", without any minimum order requirement.

Delivery-partners of GrabFood, meanwhile, can work "whenever they want" without having to pre-book their delivery slots, and cash out all their earnings for the day on the same day, "without any delay".

James Ong, head of GrabFood Singapore, said: "GrabFood is a major milestone in our journey to become the everyday app for consumers."

GrabFood will be available in six South-east Asian countries within this quarter: Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. In Singapore, it will pit Grab against food delivery incumbents Deliveroo and Foodpanda.

In March, Grab announced that it has acquired rival Uber's operations in South-east Asia, including Uber's food delivery business, UberEATS, which it has built on to create GrabFood.

Today, Singapore-headquartered Grab is in 209 cities across eight countries in South-east Asia, and has seen over 95 million downloads of its mobile app. Its offerings comprise ridehailing, fintech and marketplace services.