Grab launches its food delivery service, GrabFood, in Singapore

The Singapore-based ridesharing company Grab has launched its own food delivery business, GrabFood.

The service is in beta right now and available in Singapore. Grab has partnered with thousands of merchant-partners and will serve local and international cuisine. “There is a $250-300 million total addressable market in Singapore for food delivery, and an estimated 4,000 restaurants and 12,000 hawkers stalls that are not yet served by food delivery apps. GrabFood will bring more food vendors online to offer the widest selection of cuisines and local delights for consumers, and more revenue opportunities for merchants,” shared Grab in a statement.

In March, Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to Grab. Part of this deal was UberEats, Uber’s food delivery platform which Grab used to build GrabFood. The service has first been made available to Singapore and then it will be launched in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand.

For customers, there is no minimum order requirement, they can place an order in advance, and get rewarded for every order.

“GrabFood is a major milestone in our journey to becoming the everyday app for consumers. The launch of GrabFood in Singapore will bring a wide range of dining options to more consumers, and provide more income opportunities for local merchants and delivery-partners. With GrabFood, we want to serve every palate and craving and provide a platform for food vendors to come online and reach a wider customer base. We see huge potential in helping vendors here reap incremental benefits and enjoy an increase of orders via GrabFood. This mutually beneficial ecosystem is what we aim to achieve here in Singapore,” said James Ong, Head of GrabFood Singapore in a statement.

UberEats, which could have been the new platform’s toughest competition, has already been acquired by Grab, hence the Singapore-based firm will be looking to maximise returns from the market that UberEats had already established. Meanwhile, in Singapore, GrabFood will still have to contend with rivals such as Delivery Hero (which acquired Foodpanda) and Deliveroo. The competition will be tough because both of these are established players. In fact, in September, Deliveroo had raised Series F funding, pushing its valuation to over US$2 billion. GrabFood needs to get going, and it’s definitely aiming to be the next big thing in food delivery in Southeast Asia.