Honda Motor Invests in GrabTaxi

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Honda Motor Co. Ltd. has invested an undisclosed sum in GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd., boosting the Singapore ride-hailing firm's capital so it can fend off Uber Technologies Inc.'s widening reach in Southeast Asia.

The deal with Honda comes less than two weeks after Grab unveiled a tie-up with Japan's top car-leasing company, Tokyo Century Corp. It highlights how quickly deals have been made under Grab's new president, Ming Maa, a former M&A executive at Japan's SoftBank Group Corp.

In September, SoftBank, which owns U.S. carrier Sprint Corp., led a $750 million Series F funding round in Grab that valued the company, which was co-founded by Anthony Tan, at $3 billion. Tokyo Century participated in the extended round of that series, Grab has said.

Japanese auto makers are working to cement alliances with ride-hailing companies. In May, Toyota Motor Corp. said it invested in Uber as part of a strategic alliance aimed at getting more drivers on the ride-hailing service.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2016 22:35 ET (03:35 GMT)

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