Grab Expands Grocery Push with Malaysia's Jaya Grocer Purchase

Late last week, Grab made its big play to enter the supermarket and grocery space.

With this surprisingly sudden move, Malaysia’s premium supermarket player – Jaya Grocer Holdings, will soon be under the management of Grab Holdings Ltd (Grab) as revealed in a short US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. According to The Edge Malaysia, the regional ride-hailing player signed on an estimated acquisition deal that is worth US$425 million (up to RM1.8 billion).

This comes just a few weeks after Jaya Grocer founders – the Teng family – bought back the entire stake from Singapore-based private equity firm, AIGF Advisors. Multiple news reports confirmed that the Teng family spent around RM411 million (estimated US$98 million) to take back full ownership of Jaya Grocer.

Credit: Tech360.tv

Grab’s latest acquisition is its largest since it moved to buy up Indonesian-based payment services player, OVO, in early-2021.

By purchasing Jaya Grocer and, as per filing – making it a full subsidiary of Grab, it makes the grocery journey a full-circle for the original taxi-hailing upstart as it is now just over two years since the launch of GrabSupermarket in Malaysia. Notably, Jaya Grocer had been one of the platform’s primary partners. As it takes in this well-recognised Malaysian grocery brand and its