Grab Holdings, the Southeast Asian ride sharing, food delivery and payments app, is investing $500 million over a five-year period in Vietnam, part of a massive plan to grow the country's digital economy and increase the level of financial inclusion among workers.

The funding will be used to expand Grab's transport, food and payments business in Vietnam, and explore new opportunities in fintech, mobility solutions and the logistics industry. 

Grab, which has operated in the country since 2014, has grown into the leading super app in Vietnam. Grab Food has 300,000 daily orders and Grab drivers have earned more than $1 billion, while its payments partner, called Moca, has grown into one of the nation's largest mobile payment apps. 

"We will use the investment to roll out new services in the country, such as ticketing, groceries and multi-modal solutions, and scale our transport and food business and increase the adoption of cashless payments via our partner Moca," a spokesman told Mobile Payments Today via email. "Our investment in new mobility solutions, fintech and logistics, would either involve investing in startups holding those core competencies or investing in the development of promising solutions and services for the country."

As part of the announcement, Grab said it will partner with Sovico Group, a Vietnamese conglomerate, to invest in logistics and mobility in order to grow first and last-mile delivery in Vietnam.

The announcement comes one month after Grab announced a similar $2 billion investment in Indonesia using funding from SoftBank. 

Cover photo: Courtesy of Grab