canada goose Grab could lock down another $1 billion in funding Nicholas Shields 8h This story was delivered to Business Insider Intelligence Transportation & Logistics Briefing subscribers hours before it appeared on Business Insider. To be the first to know, please click here. Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab is reportedly close to securing another $1 billion in funding from investors, according to Reuters. The new investment would be led by $500 million from Japanese telco Softbank outletcanadagoose.biz , and would ultimately bring Grab’s total funding to a whopping $7.1 billion. Business Insider Intelligence This round could also include previous Grab investors like Toyota — which led two funding rounds in Grab earlier this year — as well as private equity giant KKR and Korean automaker Hyundai. Grab has raised $2 billion so far this year alone, and currently has a presence in 235 cities across 8 countries in Southeast Asia, counting more than 100 million users. Grab’s impressive war chest enables it to expand outside Southeast Asia if it wants to.Grab’s home territory is incredibly lucrative — ride-hailing revenue in Southeast Asia is predicted to surge from $5.1 billion last year to $20.1 billion in 2025 Canada Goose factory outlet , according to a Google-Temasek report cited by Reuters. Grab is the dominant ride-hailing firm in Southeast Asia after its acquisition of Uber’s business in the region earlier this year, affording it an ability to capture the lion’s share of revenue in the space. This latest funding round catapults Grab to one of the most well-capitalized ride-hailing firms in the world, enabling it to enter other lucrative nearby markets. In India, the ride-hailing market is currently worth over $2 billion and is expected to explode as smartphone penetration deepens, making it a potentially attractive geography for Grab. Grab could also use the funding to create a platform for automakers — Toyota and Hyundai in particular — to deploy autonomous cars. Like nearly every automaker, Toyota and Hyundai both have been developing autonomous driving technologies. Toyota, in particular, has been active as of late, striking a partnership with SoftBank to co-develop autonomous tech and mobility services just last week. Grab could use this new funding to mimic Lyft’s ambitious move in the US market, creating a fleet management platform for automakers like Toyota and Hyundai to deploy their self-driving vehicles on. But Grab will need to be wary of overextending itself past its core business. The firm is arguably the ride-hailing company with the widest portfolio of services outside of that core service itself: it has a mobile payments service, offers electronic money transfers and loans, and delivers food and parcels. Other ride-hailing firms have run into trouble after expanding extensively into areas beyond their core business. Uber, for instance, had to shutter its parcel delivery service and autonomous trucking efforts earlier this year after originally having high hopes for both. Grab will thus need to be mindful of Uber’s failures as it forges ahead with its large portfolio of services. canada goose parka