Grab closing GrabInvest and investment products

Grab is shuttering its investment products AutoInvest and Earn+ from Monday (Sep 25), and winding down the GrabInvest business.

"The decision follows an extensive review which concluded that the business would not be commercially viable," said Grab in an e-mail to customers.

The GrabInvest business was only serving the Singapore market, as Grab did not roll out either investment product to other markets in the region. Customers are instructed to withdraw their monies from the products by Oct 13.

"As we will no longer be investing to scale GrabInvest, we have concluded that the business will not be commercially viable in the long run," said a Grab spokesperson.

Grab said it will remain committed to serving its customers through its other financial offerings.

"This decision is part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our financial services business to focus on products with strong ecosystem synergies, such as GrabPay, Insurance and Lending," said the spokesperson.

The move comes after Grab's recent second-quarter results showed narrowing losses and potentially earlier adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation break even.

The investment products were a result of Grab acquiring robo-advisory firm Bento in February 2020, along with its capital markets licence. Bento would be rebranded as Grab Financial Group after the acquisition, with AutoInvest the first investment product launched.

Grab Financial Group would later be renamed GrabFin in May 2022 along with the launch of Earn+. Both products allowed users to invest from as low as S$1 with no minimum lock-in period.

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This article was first published in The Business Times. Permission required for reproduction.