MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grab Offering Insurance, Training People with Disabilities as Mobile Money Agents in Indonesia

Grab, a technology company founded in Singapore, recently partnered with Indonesia’s Communications and Information Ministry and the Indonesian Inclusive Connections Community, an NGO also known as Konekin, to found a program to train disabled people to work as agents for Grab’s GrabKios service, through which they sell services such as remittances and mobile phone credit.

Grab also tied up with Indonesia-based PFI Mega Life Insurance to offer two insurance products. Hospital Cash Cover pays up to IDR 250,000 (USD 17) per day of hospitalization. Community Cover pays IDR 100 million (USD 6,800) upon the policyholder being diagnosed with any of 36 illnesses. Community Cover also has a cashback component whereby users receive monthly rebates based on the product’s payout history.

Founded in 2012, Grab is a ride-hailing, delivery and financial services firm serving 187 million users in eight Southeast Asian countries. Grab recently announced it is going public through a merger with US-based Altimeter Capital. Based on the terms of the merger, Grab is expected to be valued at USD 40 billion.

PFI Mega Life Insurance is a subsidiary of Prudential Financial Incorporated (PFI), an insurance and investment management firm headquartered in the US state of New Jersey. In 2020, Prudential reported USD 4 trillion of gross life insurance in force in 40 countries. For the fourth quarter of 2020, it reported return on assets of 4.82 percent and return on equity of 7.05 percent.

By Sophie Fiala, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Jakarta Post article
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2021/04/15/grassroot-strategy-to-realize-financial-inclusion-in-indonesia.html

CNN article
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/13/investing/grab-altimeter-us-spac-ipo-intl-hnk/index.html

Grab homepage
https://www.grab.com/

GrabKios webpage
https://www.grab.com/id/en/kios/

Crunchbase profile on Grab
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/grabtaxi

PFI Mega Life Insurance homepage
https://www.pfimegalife.co.id/

PFI profile
https://www.prudential.com/about

PFI fact sheet
https://news.prudential.com/press_file.cfm?content_id=122672

PFI proxy statement and annual report
https://www.prudential.com/links/about/corporate-proxy-annual-voting-results

Altimeter Capital homepage
https://www.altimeter.com/