AI is helping Grab ship products 3 times faster, CFO says, as company raises forecasts

Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading ride-hailing and delivery firm, raised its full-year outlook on Tuesday as it reported record second-quarter results, with resilient consumer demand across the region holding up despite macroeconomic headwinds. 

Shares of the Nasdaq-listed company rose 4.86% in extended trading. 

“AI is now embedded in the Grab way of life, whether it’s in our products or the way we work,” Grab CFO Peter Oey told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia“, adding that the technology has helped the company ship products three times faster translating into better margins and a more efficient cost structure. 

The company saw a 28% year-on-year jump in the number of rides in the second quarter, Oey said. “It’s one of the highest that we’ve seen.”

The company’s revenue grew 22% year on year to $997 million and its operating profit came at $19 million for the quarter ended in June, up 186%.

Grab lifted its full-year revenue outlook to $4.10 billion-$4.15 billion from $4.04 billion to $4.10 billion forecast earlier, and raised it’s EBITDA estimates to $720 million-$740 million, from $700 million-$720 million.

“We’re seeing demand continue to be very strong in the business in the month of July itself, and our financial services continue to scale and are at an inflection point today,” Oey said, expressing confidence in the business outlook. 

On Grab’s agreement to buy Delivery Hero’s foodpanda business in Taiwan, Oey said the company was working closely with regulators and has not yet closed the transaction, and hopes to complete it in the second half of this year.

“A lot of the products that the Southeast Asian community has been seeing and using day in and day out, we want to bring to the Taiwan market as well,” he said.