The taxi app Grab has confirmed its first major acquisition, after completing a deal with the Indonesian payments service Kudo. The deal is reportedly worth around 80 million US dollars. Kudo allows users who don't have a credit card to buy items online, using public kiosks in 500 towns around the country. Grab is Uber's only major competitor in the South East Asian market, and this announcement means that Grab can now expand its payment platform. Recently, the company announced the launch of its own payments platform, GrabPay, which will now be boosted by Kudo's technology. Grab said that Kudo's platform would be “integrated with Grab's existing payments ecosystem”, and “accelerate the expansion of Kudo's agent network across Indonesia”.
