Microsoft invests in Southeast Asian taxi service Grab

Microsoft says it is investing an undisclosed amount in Southeast Asian taxi service Grab as part of a five-year deal between the two companies. Grab will make use of Microsoft’s machine learning services, among others.

Grab president Ming Ma says it will be a “close collaboration on various technology projects,” including “big data and artificial intelligence.” His company will start using Azure, for example to detect fraudulent payments. In addition, the collaboration includes the optional use of facial recognition for the identification of drivers and passengers, which, according to the companies, means that identity documents no longer need to be checked. Another application is translating speech in real time and picking up passengers at the right location based on a picture of their surroundings.

Although the companies themselves have not disclosed the investment, a source told the Financial Times that the amount would be around $200 million. According to previous reports from the newspaper, the Japanese SoftBank also wants to invest in the taxi service with half a billion dollars.

Grab is not only a taxi and delivery service, but also offers a payment platform in the form of GrabPay. Earlier this year, the company bought the Southeast Asian branch of its competitor Uber. In exchange, the American taxi service received a 27.5 percent share of Grab.