Grab is shifting from a ride-hailing and food delivery platform to a full-fledged consumer credit business.
Recently, Grab Holdings Limited announced an agreement to acquire a 60% stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, expecting to close the deal by Q3 2027 after regulatory approval.
Atome operates a buy-now-pay-later platform offering cash loans, credit cards, and digital loans across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Meanwhile, Grab has nearly 54 million monthly active users. Combining these businesses gives Grab both loan products and access channels to customers.
A key focus of this deal is the credit assessment method. Atome uses AI-based risk analysis, while Grab has behavioral data from its platform. The company believes integrating these data sources will improve credit evaluation for customers with limited banking credit history.
This group includes freelancers, driver partners, and small merchants who may have actual income from work but lack formal employment income documents. However, app data alone does not guarantee loan approval or reliably predict repayment ability. Outcomes depend on the company’s assessment methods and risk controls.
Grab's existing customer base indicates this market already exists. In 2025, 68% of driver partners who borrowed through Grab accessed formal credit for the first time. The Atome deal is thus an extension of Grab’s current lending business rather than starting from scratch.
On the other hand, Atome’s network includes over 30,000 brands, providing Grab opportunities to offer its services to customers and merchants in that network, while Atome gains access to Grab’s large user base.
Analysts see Grab’s plan as twofold: 1. expanding consumer credit and 2. enhancing financial services for drivers and merchants in its ecosystem. However, increasing lending without raising bad debts is a major challenge. Both companies state they will collaborate on risk assessment, fraud prevention, and debt collection under each country’s regulations.
Grab aims for the combined financial services loan portfolio, including Atome, to exceed $6 billion by 2028. This target aligns with the company’s ambition to become the number one digital lending provider in ASEAN. After closing the deal, attention will focus on how far Grab can expand credit using data and AI while maintaining loan quality.
Source:grab.com
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