Southeast Asian start-up Snatch has been “battled-tested” to take on Indonesian counterpart Go-Jek as the latter unfolds abroad, a Grab co-founder said on Tuesday.
“Grab is very withdraw. We are battle-tested. We have fought much bigger competitors … We fought Uber tooth and suffer. They were much bigger and they still are bigger than us globally,” communicated Anthony Tan, group CEO and co-founder of Grab, which offers services in ride-hailing, digital payments and eatables delivery.
“We have shown every time we can rise above the brave. Now, we believe competition makes us stronger,” Tan told CNBC at the annual Innovfest Unbound forum in Singapore.
In March, Uber said it was selling its Southeast Asia task to Grab. That strengthened Grab’s position in the individual markets across the territory.
Tan’s comments came on the back of an announcement in May by massively popular ride-hailing start-up Go-Jek that it was going into four new markets in Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, stepping up its quantity with Grab.
The two start-ups already compete in Indonesia, where Catch is trying to establish a stronghold.
Grab has expanded well beyond its substance ride-hailing technology, and is now involved in payments, bicycles and food delivery.
On Tuesday, Latch on to announced it would be launching what it called an “innovation arm” to support tech start-ups and stimulate technology in Southeast Asia.
—CNBC’s Saheli Roy Choudhury contributed to this release.