How AWS Cloud Catalyzes Innovation Strategies for Grab Superapp

Introduction

Southeast Asia’s premier superapp utilizes AWS to accelerate the deployment of new services, improve efficiency, and accelerate AI-powered growth in eight countries.

Since 2015, the financial technology sector in Southeast Asia has experienced substantial transformation as traditional banking services continue to integrate with digital platforms. The banking sector has been opened up to technology firms by the region’s intricate regulatory environment, which encompasses multiple jurisdictions with varying levels of financial inclusion. This is particularly true in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, where regulators have implemented digital banking licenses to enhance competition in the financial services sector.

In order to manage transactions, maintain security, and process data across multiple countries, the integration of financial services into existing technology platforms necessitates a substantial computing infrastructure.

Important information
Grab’s platform processes 200 megabytes of data daily, which is equivalent to the production of 200,000 full-length films. Additionally, there are 41.9 million monthly transacting users.
In its inaugural year of operation, GX Bank Malaysia acquired nearly one million customers.

As a result of these market conditions, cloud service providers have ramped up their competition in order to facilitate the region’s growing digital economy. The selection of cloud infrastructure has become a critical decision for technology firms operating throughout Southeast Asia, particularly those that handle financial data and transactions.

Grab, a Singapore-based technology company that offers financial services, ride-hailing, and food delivery services throughout Southeast Asia, has declared Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider. This action enables Grab to expedite innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and facilitate its expansion into digital banking in its eight-country footprint, which includes Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Grab, a superapp that serves over 13 million registered couriers and delivery partners and 41.9 million monthly transacting users, processes an astonishing amount of data on a daily basis. The critical compute, storage, networking, and database functions that enable Grab to rapidly deploy new services and scale efficiently are powered by AWS.

Optimizing costs and driving efficiency with AWS cloud solutions

Grab has increased its agility and decreased its operational costs by implementing AWS’s array of cloud-based solutions. The AWS analytics service Clean Rooms is employed by the superapp to facilitate secure, privacy-preserving data collaboration. Additionally, Grab has transitioned more than 400 backend application services from conventional virtual servers to AWS Graviton2 processors in order to optimize performance and reduce costs. Grab utilizes Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) as its transactional databases to guarantee its platform’s adaptability, scalability, and availability. This allows Grab to create exceptional customer experiences that are powered by more precise searchable data. Grab depends on AWS to seamlessly adjust to the changing requirements of its customers, as on-demand transactions increased by 22% in the third quarter of 2024. This encompasses the development of digital institutions in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as the expansion of features such as the enhanced Group Order and revamped Advance Booking.

Grab was able to construct and introduce GX Bank in Malaysia in less than 16 months as a consequence of its partnership with AWS. The bank expanded rapidly to service nearly one million customers within the first year of its launch. Grab can effortlessly modify resources dynamically in response to user demand, thereby accommodating increased traffic during peak periods such as holiday sales and reducing resources during off-peak periods to reduce costs. This is made possible by AWS’s cloud infrastructure. Grab, a pioneer in the adoption of AI in Southeast Asia, is dedicated to investigating the potential of the most recent AI technologies to enhance the experience of its users and partners. Catwalk, Grab’s machine learning model platform, has deployed more than 1,000 AI models in production to enable personalized experiences such as tailored restaurant recommendations, loyalty rewards, and bespoke financial services based on users’ preferences. Catwalk is built on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

Grab processes more than 200 TB of data daily on AWS, which is equivalent to 200,000 full-length movies, and maintains hundreds of petabytes of data. Grab’s sophisticated analytics, machine learning, and AI initiatives are powered by this data. The superapp cost-effectively powers its AI-powered services, such as map enhancements and fraud detection in its digital banks, using AWS’s custom-designed Inferentia processors with specialized machine learning inference capabilities.

Read: Top 10 Financial Software Solutions

Industry Comments

“At Grab, our strategy for growth is anchored on constant innovation to outserve the needs of our users and partners,” says Suthen Thomas Paradatheth, CTO of Grab. “This requires rapid experimentation, while ensuring security and stability, along with the ability to fully harness the potential of the latest tech like generative AI (Gen AI). We’re pleased to extend our partnership with AWS as our preferred cloud partner to continue to support us on this journey.”

“AWS is proud to support Grab in its mission to drive innovation and enhance customer experiences across Southeast Asia,” says Jeff Johnson, Managing Director, ASEAN at AWS. “As the leading cloud provider, AWS is uniquely positioned to help Grab optimize its price performance, boost operational efficiency and continually evolve its broad suite of data-powered services. We’re excited to continue collaborating with Grab as it navigates the dynamic landscape of ecommerce and superapp development, ensuring it stays at the forefront of innovation in the digital economy.”