As predicted by Fintechnews the Philippines is the next stop in GrabPay’s expansion in South East Asia.
Grab and Philippine-based conglomerate SM Investments Corp (SM) signed a strategic partnership in a bid to expand the GrabPay mobile wallet in the Philippines and drive more financial inclusion for Filipinos.
The tie up combines the strengths of Grab’s large user base and tech platform with SM’s broad portfolio of flagship shopping malls, banks and merchant-partners nationwide.
Starting 2019, consumers can use GrabPay to pay for goods and services and load their mobile or e-wallet from SM group’s market-leading merchant and banking network. GrabPay is currently used in the Philippines for transport and delivery services.
SM has over 70 malls nationwide and more than 2,200 stores with an extensive merchant network. The conglomerate also owns the country’s largest bank BDO Unibank which has over 1,200 branches and more than 4,200 ATMs nationwide.
Originally a ride-hailing app, Grab has shifted its business model into an online-to-offline or O2O platform to become an “everyday app” that allows users to shop items, grocery supplies, cinema tickets and other goods and services from offline stores.
Grab claims to have over 125 million downloads region-wide and a presence in 1 in 2 smartphones in the Philippines. It is a fintech platform working through partnerships with over 60 of the world’s leading financial institutions.
Both GrabPay and SM support the goal of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in raising cashless transactions in the country from today’s 1 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020.
“We are confident that by combining the strengths of Southeast Asia’s leading fintech platform with SM’s extensive network of merchant partners and establishments, we can transition millions of unbanked Filipinos into cashless,” said Ooi Huey Tyng, Managing Director of GrabPay Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
GrabPay got BSP’s approval last August as an e-money issuer and later on announced its mobile prepaid top-up feature in partnership with local telco companies.
Grab Financial is the first mobile payments platform to launch regulated e-money payments services in all ASEAN-6 countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand) and leads the mobile payments market in Southeast Asia in terms of Monthly Active Users (MAU) and Total Payments Volume (TPV).
In photo are (from left) Grab Philippines Head Brian Cu, GrabPay Managing Director for Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines Ooi Huey Tyng, SM Investments Corporation President and CEO Frederic DyBuncio, SM Engineering Design & Development Corp. President Hans “Chico” Sy Jr., and SM Retail Assistant Vice President Mara Sy Coson
