Grab to expand global R&D capabilities, add 800 jobs

RIDESHARING platform Grab on Wednesday announced that it will be expanding its research and development (R&D) capabilities globally, adding over 800 jobs in the next two years.

It has opened two new R&D centres in Bangalore, India and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The centre in India will focus on developing new payment technologies for GrabPay, Grab's digital payments platform. Grab said that this will deepen financial inclusion and increase access to mobile payments across South-east Asia, its focus market.

The centre in Vietnam will create in-app user experiences tailored to Grab users in Vietnam, and enhance the experiences for users across the region.

Both new centres add to Grab's existing centres in Beijing, Jakarta, Seattle and Singapore, doubling its number of R&D centres from three to six in the last quarter.

In Singapore, Grab will be moving to a larger office space of almost 100,000 sq ft in the Central Business District. This will be Grab's largest R&D centre globally, where it will continue to drive the development of the app based on local market research, and introduce new services and features that improve the user experience.

Grab said that it will add more than 800 new R&D jobs in the next two years, across all its six R&D centres.