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Source：Steady Information Network Editor：Science Time：2025-06-26 12:42:44

Grab025 Archivesentering India, though not the way some of us had expected.

The Southeast Asian ride-hailing service said on Wednesday it's opening two new R&D centers, one in Bangalore, India, and the other one in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as the company further ramps up its engineering efforts.

SEE ALSO: The mechanism behind booking a ride on your phone is actually really complex

The addition of these two centres brings its engineering offices globally to six markets; it has others in Jakarta, Beijing, Singapore, and Seattle.

Grab noted that the new facilities will result in the creation of 800 new jobs too.

The added boost of engineers from India and Vietnam will help with the company's efforts to develop local features, as it works to fend off Uber in Southeast Asia.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The new engineers will also work on the company's GrabPay cashless wallet payment platform, targeting the emerging markets it operates in.

Until now GrabPay has exclusively worked with the Grab cab service, but the company is now opening it up and is in talks with banks and other financial sectors, said Arul Kumaravel, VP of Engineering at Grab in an interview with Mashable.

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"India itself is going through the transition to cash-less solution and the challenges it faces are very similar to what we have seen at other Asian markets," Kumaravel said, adding that the company will be hiring 200 engineers and developers at its R&D center in Bangalore.

Grab started seeking engineers and developers in India several weeks ago. It's is hosting a "special event" in the country on March 24, presumably to celebrate the launch.

Will we see Grab in India one day?

India is a lucrative market for transportation services. Valued at $10 billion by several estimates, the country already has multiple cab services fighting for market dominance.

Kumaravel, however, insists that the company currently has "no plans" to bring its cab-service to India, or even launch GrabPay as a standalone service in the country. "But we're looking at India," he said.

Although Uber entered India five years ago, the company is still trailing behind the local giant Ola. Both the companies have thrown enticing offers to drivers in the country to lure them to their respective networks, and are increasingly looking at right-sizing their business models to boost revenue.

Meanwhile, India's largest industrial house, RIL is also looking at offering a cab service in India. According to several cab drivers, the company recently approached them for its upcoming cab service dubbed Jio Cabs.

Grab, which is valued at $3 billion, claims to have 36 million downloads and it operates as many as 1.5 million bookings every day. It currently offers its cab services in six Southeast Asian countries: Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, with over 710,000 registered drivers on its network.

UPDATE: March 15, 2017, 4:08 p.m. SGT Updated with additional information on GrabPay from Kumaravel.

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