The Silicon Review ^Asia

Grab, a popular ride-hailing company in Southeast Asia, will expand its food delivery business, GrabKitchen across Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Philippines.

According to Lim Kell Jay, the head of GrabFood, the company sees GrabKitchen as a solution that empowers its merchants to expand, grow and pave the way for consumers to choose food from a wide variety of dishes. After a successful business in Indonesia, GrabFood is aiming to scale the GrabKitchen network rapidly across the region in the coming months, added Mr Jay.

Tapping into Markets outside Indonesia for the first time

According to GrabFood, the food delivery services will be introduced in Bangkok and Vietnam‘s Ho Chi Minh City. It will soon be launched in the Philippines and Singapore. The announcement was made on Tuesday.

The cloud kitchen network is aimed to be expanded in five countries by the end of 2019. Currently, GrabFood operates in 221 cities across six countries.

Nurturing Ecosystem of Startups across Southeast Asia: GrabKitchen

Incorporated in 2019, GrabKitchen operates similar to food courts, except vendors cook dishes only for pickup and delivery. The food delivery is carried put through Grab’s super app platform.

Jostle for Attention

Majority of the ride-hailing companies in Southeast Asia are starting its own food delivery business as part of their growth strategy. According to a report produced by e-Conomy SEA 2019, over the past four years---- queries for online food delivery on Google has grown over 13 times in Indonesia, 9 times in the Philippines, and 8 times in Thailand.