( Singapore, 13rd Sept 2020 ) Grab, the largest ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia, is promoting a new micro-investment service in Singapore that sells financial products to small retail investors through a mobile application (App), even if it is only 1 yuan, you can invest.
Nikkei reported that Grab launched the "AutoInvest" micro-investment service in early August. It is hoped that this product will take the lead and become the company's pioneer product for providing banking services in Singapore and other countries in the future.
Chandrima Das, head of the Wealth Department of Grab Financial Group, said that most banks or all wealth management companies have a minimum investment amount for wealth management products, most of which are set at about 10,000 U.S. dollars, and the handling fees are also quite high. , Even if you only have 1 SGD, you can start investing, without having to spend extra effort to study the characteristics of financial products, compare handling fees and investment security."
Grab explained that this new service will automatically withdraw funds from each eligible cashless transaction to an AutoInvest account. As for eligible purchases, including calling a car through Grab, ordering food with GrabFood or purchasing with GrabMart commodity.
AutoInvest expects to invest in highly liquid corporate bonds, and the actual investment operations will be entrusted to large-scale local asset management companies in Singapore such as United Overseas Bank and Fullerton Capital Management. The expected annual return rate is about 1.8%, but it will also charge a handling fee.
Grab only launched its online payment service four years ago and has now become a major financial technology player in Southeast Asia. It is also a symbol of the rapid growth and huge potential of the Southeast Asian financial market.
In addition to online payments, most of the financial services Grab has launched so far are mainly aimed at "micro entrepreneurs", that is, 9 million self-employed people who directly provide services to consumers, such as car-hailing service drivers or restaurant owners, because these are calculated The risk of a person’s default or accident is relatively simple, as can be seen from daily trips and sales data. The newly launched AutoInvest symbolizes Grab's ambition to expand the financial market and represents the company's preparation to expand into a larger consumer market.
According to a joint research by Google, Temasek and Bain Consultants, the revenue of digital financial services in Southeast Asia will reach US$37.6 billion in 2025, 2.4 times higher than the US$11.1 billion in 2019. Grab's current payment-oriented business model will inevitably face a slowdown in growth, so Grab must quickly and comprehensively launch online lending and insurance services.
**Info & Image are taken online
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