Singapore-headquartered Grab posted first quarter sales of $507 million, which represents 39 percent growth year on year, as the super app continues its momentum for a public offering with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altimeter Growth Corp.
“We are pleased with our progress toward becoming a publicly traded company, which we expect to occur in Q4 2021,” Grab Group CEO and Co-Founder Anthony Tan said in a press release Monday (Aug. 2).
“As we prepare to become a listed company, we’re sharing our first-ever quarterly financial results, and we continue to deliver strong growth, despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19,” Tan said in the release. “Southeast Asian consumers trust Grab to meet their everyday needs in a growing number of ways, and we are excited about the emerging growth opportunities we see in our grocery delivery and financial services offerings.”
First quarter results for 2021 showed record revenue of $216 million, with an EBITDA up by $233 million year on year. Grab and Altimeter Growth Corp. also filed a draft registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gross merchandise value (GMV) went up 5 percent year on year to $3.6 billion.
Net loss was $652 million, compared to $771 million in Q1 2020. Spend per user, defined as GMV per monthly transacting users (MTU), increased by 31 percent year on year.
Grab said it was the most downloaded app and had the highest number of average smartphone monthly active users in Southeast Asia, per the release.
The company operates across eight countries and over 400 cities and is among the region’s most valuable startups. The company started as a ride-hail service and has since expanded to offer grocery delivery, digital payments and more.
Grab had been looking to file a $40 billion SPAC initial public offering earlier this year but said in June that the target would be sometime before the end of 2021. The delay is over SEC requirements.
Read more: Grab’s $40 Billion SPAC IPO Postponed Until Later This Year
