SA国际传媒

, a Singapore-based ride-hailing company, gave us insight today to where some of its billions in venture capital funding are headed: Indonesia.

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The company announced that $2 billion of 鈥檚 previous financial commitments will be targeted towards its well-established Indonesian operations. Indonesia is Grab鈥檚 largest market and also the home of its biggest regional competitor, .

SoftBank CEO said there鈥檚 plans for a second Grab HQ in Indonesia, . While the $2 billion capital commitment to the country — made possible by SoftBank — isn鈥檛 new, Son reportedly said that 鈥渙n top of that, we will invest more.鈥�

For SoftBank, which recently announced a second Vision Fund, making bets on ride-hailing companies isn鈥檛 a recent trend. Back in 2018, the Japanese conglomerate invested roughly $7 billion in Uber. SoftBank also invested in China鈥檚 and . One analyst put SoftBank鈥檚 stakes in these three companies as worth anywhere between $22.1 billion and $26.5 billion, .

As we鈥檝e covered time, time, and time again, Singapore鈥檚 Go-Jek and Indonesia鈥檚 Grab keep adding cash to their seemingly never-ending funding rounds (Grab鈥檚 Series H and Go Jek鈥檚 Series F.) It鈥檚 because ride-hailing, you guessed it, costs a lot of money. But, as our EIC Alex Wilhelm tell us, the industry can wrack up billions in bets and hopes without even proving profit. It shows that some investors are okay with a future of potential profit, as they stay distracted by booming growth in the present.

Plus, as TechCrunch鈥檚 , this capital commitment could help Grab be in better cahoots with the local Indonesian government and the tech scene there, since the announcement was made after a meeting between the company, SoftBank, Indonesia鈥檚 president and other high-ranking officials.

To wrap up with some context, Grab and Go-Jek are both barreling toward become 鈥榮uper-apps鈥� 聽in Southeast Asia and beyond. I鈥檓 betting it won鈥檛 be too long until we鈥檙e back here reporting on the new cash, or promises, the companies make to do so.

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