Grab Is Hiring Tech Talent to Become Southeast Asia’s First Super App
Skift Take
Grab will hire an additional 1,000 tech employees in 2019, after doubling the number of software engineers, data scientists, and analysts it added this year to 2,000. A look at its next R&D hiring plan gives a few hints on what it is working on.
A web portal that enables business partners, such as a personal assistant who needs to book rides on behalf of visiting executives, or a hotel or hospital that needs to provide ground transportation for its guests, is in the works at ridehailing service Grab.
Also on the drawing board are voice-over-internet calls via GrabChat, currently a messaging tool only between passenger and driver. But what’s to stop GrabChat from evolving into a WhatsApp, WeChat, or Line in the future?
These are two areas that Grab’s new research and development center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, may soon be working on. The center opened this week with plans to hire 100 technology workers in its first year. It is Grab’s seventh R&D center after Bangalore, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Seattle, and Singapore.
Another 900 tech hires will be made
