Grab to double its headcount in S’pore by end-2020 when new HQ opens

SINGAPORE — Ride-hailing giant Grab plans to double its Singapore staff strength by the end of next year, in time for the completion of its new headquarters.

Head of people Ong Chin Yin said this on Friday (March 29) at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new S$181.2 million building at one-north business park.

Currently, Grab has 1,500 employees in Singapore, working out of four offices, at Midview City, Marina One, Cecil Street and Guoco Tower.

By the end of 2020, it plans to have 3,000 staff in the Republic, all housed in the new headquarters, which will be completed in the fourth quarter of next year, Ms Ong said.

Grab has more than 6,000 employees worldwide, not including its army of drivers, who are independent contractors.

Grab’s chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan said the new headquarters “is an affirmation of our long-term commitment to serving Singapore”.

“We’re here for seven years, and we want to be here — we must be here — for at least another 70 more years.”

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The tech company’s website currently shows 275 job openings in Singapore, from art director to security analyst.

This year, Grab will also be employing an additional 1,000 tech talents globally, including data scientists, artificial intelligence researchers, engineers, designers and product managers, Mr Tan said.

The tech talents will be working at one of Grab’s seven research and development (R&D) centres in Singapore, Beijing, Seattle, Bangalore, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

Its new headquarters here, once completed, will be its largest R&D centre.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, called the new headquarters an “excellent idea”, saying it would help contribute towards Singapore’s development as a global Asian node of technology, innovation and enterprise.

“This fits very nicely into what Singapore is hoping to do, and we will continue to support innovative companies like yours, to continue to break new frontiers,” he said.

He noted that as part of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 plan,  the Government has earmarked S$500 million for investments in research on infocomm technology and artificial intelligence.

GROWING STARTUPS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA

Grab also announced on Friday that it will accept a second batch of participants into its Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) programme, which helps startups test and commercialise their business ideas.

Applications for the second intake are open from now until May 15 to startups across South-east Asia.

The startups’ business ideas must reflect the theme of “empowering microentrepreneurs”. The GVV programme has two tracks:

• Empower farmers, for startups with solutions that can disrupt the traditional fresh groceries supply chain.

• Empower small business, for startups with solutions to digitise small businesses, lower costs, simplify operations and earn more.

About six to 10 startups will be selected for the GVV programme, which will allow them the opportunity to sell their services on the Grab platform and tap Grab’s network and resources for three months from June.

The most successful ones will also get a partnership deal with Grab, to grow their business throughout South-east Asia.

Five startups participated in the first batch of GVV, three of which have entered into partnerships with Grab.