by Jan Michael Carpo, Reporter
Grab, Southeast Asia’s dominant superapp, has fortified its alliance with Amazon Web Services (AWS), marking a pivotal moment for the region’s digital economy.
Announced during AWS re:Invent, this partnership underscores the superapp’s commitment to innovation while offering the transformative potential for the Philippine fintech sector. By leveraging AWS’s advanced cloud solutions, Grab aims to expand its mobility, deliveries, and financial services, including its burgeoning digital banking initiatives.
Grab: Redefining operations across Southeast Asia
With 41.9 million monthly users and 13 million partners across eight countries, including the Philippines, Grab processes an astonishing volume of transactions, GPS pings, and real-time arrival estimates every second.
AWS’s robust and scalable cloud infrastructure ensures these operations run seamlessly, allowing the superapp to meet rising consumer demands with cost efficiency.
In a rapidly digitizing market like the Philippines, this partnership presents immense opportunities to enhance the reliability and reach of financial technology services.
“Our strategy for growth is anchored on constant innovation,” shared Suthen Thomas Paradatheth, Chief Technology Officer of Grab. “We’re pleased to extend our partnership with AWS as our preferred cloud partner to support us on this journey.”
Grab Holdings, a well-known regional tech business and owner of the super app “Grab,” is also said to be thinking of buying foodpanda, a well-known meal delivery platform in Southeast Asia’s burgeoning food delivery market. This scenario became a possibility after foodpanda’s owner, Delivery Hero, announced plans to sell its operations in Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines, especially those that operate under the foodpanda brand.
Accelerating fintech innovation
Through AWS, Grab has successfully optimized operational costs and scaled dynamically, a model that could greatly benefit fintech firms in the Philippines.
For instance, by migrating over 400 backend services to AWS Graviton2 processors, Grab achieved higher performance at lower costs. This approach allows businesses to manage peak demand without compromising service quality, a critical factor in markets where affordability and accessibility are key drivers.
Innovations like Grab’s revamped Advance Booking system and Group Order functionality, developed with AWS support, showcase the potential for improving customer experiences.
These advancements highlight a roadmap for Philippine fintech players seeking to deliver seamless, user-friendly solutions.
AI-powered financial services for greater inclusion
A cornerstone of Grab’s success is its ability to personalize services through advanced AI models powered by AWS.
Its proprietary platform, Catwalk, runs over 1,000 machine-learning models that drive tailored customer experiences. From restaurant recommendations to fraud detection in digital banking, AI ensures precision and reliability.
In the Philippines, where financial inclusion is a critical goal, such AI-driven solutions could significantly enhance user trust and engagement. Fraud detection capabilities, for instance, address the growing threat of cyberattacks, while personalized features attract diverse consumer demographics.
Grab’s innovative use of AI, such as optimizing driver productivity and creating engaging food descriptions for merchants, could inspire local fintech companies to adopt similar strategies.
Pioneering digital banking in Southeast Asia
Grab’s partnership with AWS has already yielded remarkable milestones in digital banking across Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, collectively serving nearly one million customers within a year. These achievements signal the potential for similar ventures in the Philippines, where digital banking penetration remains untapped but promising.
For Filipino fintech stakeholders, Grab’s success offers a compelling case for leveraging cloud technology to build scalable, user-centric solutions. Digital banking, powered by AWS’s infrastructure, could accelerate financial inclusion and empower underserved communities, particularly the unbanked and underbanked populations.
A model for the Philippine fintech sector
The Grab-AWS collaboration exemplifies the transformative potential of cloud partnerships for emerging fintech markets like the Philippines. AWS’s infrastructure provides a reliable, scalable backbone essential for fintech startups aiming to scale operations.
Moreover, the integration of cloud-based AI showcases how personalized, secure services can attract a wider audience and foster customer loyalty.
As the Philippine fintech sector continues to grow, adopting similar cloud-driven strategies could drive greater innovation and efficiency. The result: a more competitive industry offering expanded financial services to consumers across the country.
As one of the pioneers of AI adoption in Southeast Asia, Grab is committed to being at the forefront of exploring how the latest AI technologies can better serve and respond to the needs of its users and partners.
Catwalk, Grab’s machine learning (ML) model platform, is built on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), and has been used to deploy over 1,000 AI models in production, such as route guidance and pricing.
With Catwalk, Grab provides users’ with real-time decision-making across its services and delivers personalized experiences like tailored restaurant recommendations, loyalty rewards, and bespoke financial services based on users’ preferences. In addition, Grab uses AWS’s custom-designed AWS Inferentia chips with specialized ML inference capabilities to cost-efficiently power its AI-powered services, including map enhancements and fraud detection in its digital banks.
Towards sustainable growth
Grab’s commitment to inclusive and sustainable development resonates strongly with the Philippines’ focus on economic empowerment. By integrating AWS technology, Grab not only improves its operational efficiency but also amplifies its capacity to support small businesses, drivers, and merchants. This collaborative approach can inspire local fintech firms to prioritize inclusive growth while scaling sustainably.
Jeff Johnson, Managing Director of AWS ASEAN, encapsulated the partnership’s transformative impact: “By leveraging AWS’s unparalleled performance and cutting-edge technologies, Grab delivers seamless transactions to millions across Southeast Asia.” This vision highlights the potential for similar collaborations to propel the Philippine fintech sector forward.
As Grab continues to expand and innovate with AWS, its success serves as a blueprint for integrating advanced cloud technologies into financial ecosystems. For the Philippines, this partnership offers a glimpse into a future where fintech growth aligns with the country’s unique needs, fostering a more dynamic, inclusive, and resilient economy.
In the end, the Grab-AWS collaboration is more than just a corporate alliance — it’s a testament to the power of technology to reshape industries and economies.
For the Philippine fintech sector, this partnership serves as a model for driving growth, innovation, and financial inclusion, setting the stage for a thriving digital economy.
About Grab and AWS
Founded in 2012, Grab operates across eight Southeast Asian countries, offering services ranging from ride-hailing and food delivery to digital financial solutions. AWS, a global leader in cloud technology since 2006, supports businesses with over 240 fully featured services, empowering organizations to achieve scalability, security, and innovation.