Grab expands its grip with Chope reservation platform acquisition

SINGAPORE: Grab, the largest ride-hailing and food delivery firm in Southeast Asia, has grown even larger now after buying Chope, a restaurant reservation platform.

Grab’s latest acquisition was announced on Monday (July 22) after The Business Times cited an internal email regarding the sale, with both companies confirming it the following day.

The email, which informed Grab’s workers about the acquisition, said that the staff from Chope would join Grab’s offices in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand in a “couple of weeks”.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Grab said, “We believe the addition of Chope’s products and services provides more synergies for our merchant partners, especially in helping them capture online-to-offline opportunities.”

Chope, founded in 2011, is a real-time dining reservation booking platform headquartered in Singapore.

It serves diners in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai, Bali, Phuket, and Jakarta. More than 13,000 food and beverage establishments are listed on the platform.

The name, of course, was inspired by a term familiar to Singaporeans, “chope,” which is widely used to reserve a place to eat, using any number of things, but commonly a packet of tissue.

“Having seated more than 110 million diners, Chope understands what excites people about dining out and how best to maximise business for over 8,000 restaurants.

With Chope, diners can discover restaurants, make bookings, save with deals, and order pick-up and delivery on the app.

Chope’s demand-generating diner platform is seamlessly incorporated with a suite of integrated restaurant solutions encompass reservation, call, queue, and table management,” reads the company’s LinkedIn page.

In the statement on the acquisition of Chope, Grab indicated that it is concentrating on helping to level the playing field for small and medium-sized businesses.

These companies are the majority of merchants on its platform and lack bigger brands’ resources.

As for Chope, its founder, Arrif Ziaudeenjas, said that the company decided to find a partner that would help it seek new opportunities for sustainable growth in a market that’s both competitive and challenging.

Reuters quotes Mr Ziaudeenjas as saying, “We evaluated potential buyers and found the best fit with Grab – a company with a mission-aligned to ours in connecting restaurants to diners.”

Alipay, Google, Tripadvisor, Meituan Dianping, DBS, and CapitaLand are listed as companies whose partnerships have “further enriched Chope’s ecosystem.” /TISG

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