Grab Inaugurates the Second Headquarters in Jakarta, Simultaneously Becomes the SME Innovation Center

Grab inaugurate the headquarters of both or dual headquarters in Jakarta, after Singapore. The office is also a Tech Center or innovation center for the Southeast Asia region dedicated to developing various technology solutions for Southeast Asian SMEs.

In the inauguration, also invited the ministers. They are the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Minister of Research and Technology/Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Minister of Finance, and Head of Capital Investment Coordinating Board.

In addition to the minister, Ilham Habibie as the representative of the BJ Habibie family was also present to inaugurate the BJ Habibie Hall, which is located at the Tech Center.

Grab Tech center It is located in Gama Tower, in the Kuningan area (Jakarta) covering an area of ​​more than 12 thousand square meters, occupying nine floors of the building.

Co-Founder and Group CEO Grab Anthony Tan explained, Indonesia is home to more than 64 million SMEs, only 16% of which have been digitized. This means that 8 out of 10 SMEs have not benefited from the digital economy.

“Our technology center will focus on developing “Made in Indonesia” solutions for SMEs, merchant, and agents GrabStall. We will build features that are tailored to the needs of Indonesian business people," he explained in a virtual press conference, Tuesday (10/11).

In accordance with its objectives, the Tech Center will be focused on researching, designing, and testing various devices and technologies aimed at SMEs in Indonesia first. Then, it will be exported to other developing markets in Southeast Asia, where Grab operate.

He will oversee a team that focuses on research and development (R&D) GrabKiosk, Merchant, and GrabFood, with a complete set of divisions required for a complete product development. This includes product management, product design, product analysis, software engineering, to quality assurance engineering.

Grab plans to further strengthen capabilities in engineering backend, mobile front-end engineering, as well site reliability engineering. One of the main responsibilities of the Tech team Grab Indonesia is developing a platform for various digital products Grab. Through this, various types of products will be developed to create additional sources of income for drivers and agent partners Grab.

Anthony gave an example, one of the innovations being made was adding 7 traditional markets to the mapping system Grab since last month. Thus, customers can now find their favorite market from the nearest location by using Grab Assistant, service Concierge services personal.

“Our leaders and teams in Indonesia have done a lot in the last eight months, and shown how much they care about our partners. With this technology center, we will invest more to develop local technology talent and educate the next generation of Indonesian technology leaders.”

Another example of innovation is the application features GrabMerchant yaitu Self-Onboarding (Self Registration) which allows food entrepreneurs to register and run their business in Grab within 24 hours. This feature is made by the team Grab Indonesia and is claimed to have succeeded in accelerating the company's efforts to digitize more SMEs during the pandemic.

Between May and September 2020, it was recorded that more than 70 thousand merchants in Indonesia had joined Grab through this feature. The company plans to roll out this feature in other markets in the Southeast Asia region.

President of Grab Indonesia's Ridzki Kramadibrata continued, Grab has a long-term and sustainable commitment in Indonesia. Grab The Tech Center is aimed at enhancing technological capabilities Grab in Indonesia in order to build various solutions needed by the Indonesian people.

"But it's not limited to that. We also want to contribute to developing Indonesia's technological potential and hope to bring Indonesian-made technology throughout Southeast Asia," he said.

In Indonesia, Grab has operated in more than 500 cities and empowered more than six million SME entrepreneurs. The company has also succeeded in digitizing more than 450 thousand SMEs during the pandemic. Ridzki said that through the Tech Center, his party would add 5 million SMEs that could be digitized for the next five years.