Grab Holdings agreed on Tuesday to acquire a 60% controlling stake in Singapore-based buy-now-pay-later platform Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, with an option to acquire the remaining 40% stake at a later date.
Grab, Atome Financial, Advance Intelligence Group Limited and certain other parties entered into definitive agreements under which Grab will acquire the controlling equity interest in Atome Financial, legally known as Neuroncredit Pte. Ltd.
PHASE ONE FUNDED FROM EXISTING CASH
The Phase 1 consideration of $1.49 billion will be funded entirely from Grab's existing cash, including $0.26 billion of primary growth capital directed into the target business. Phase 1 completion is expected by the third quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
Grab has agreed to acquire the remaining 40% equity interest from Advance Intelligence Group and other sellers approximately two years after Phase 1 closes, under a performance-linked valuation framework tied to EBITDA and revenue. That framework is floored at $2 billion and capped at $4.5 billion for the overall valuation, with at least 50% of the Phase 2 consideration to be settled in cash.
COMBINED LOAN BOOK TARGETED AT $6 BILLION
Grab intends to combine Atome's buy-now-pay-later loans, consumer cash loans, BNPL cards and digital lending businesses with its own Financial Services segment, targeting a combined gross loan portfolio of more than $6 billion by 2028. The ambition underscores Grab's strategy of deepening its financial services offering across Southeast Asia beyond its core ride-hailing and delivery businesses.
The two-phase structure, with a performance-linked valuation mechanism for the second tranche, allows Grab to take initial control of Atome while deferring full ownership and final pricing until the acquired business's performance over the intervening period can be assessed.
Atome Financial, operating under its legal name Neuroncredit Pte. Ltd., brings a well-established buy-now-pay-later brand across Southeast Asia into Grab's existing Financial Services segment, which already spans digital payments and lending products tied to its ride-hailing and delivery platform. The transaction reflects continued consolidation among the region's largest technology platforms and fintech providers as they compete to build comprehensive consumer financial services offerings.
The floor and cap on the Phase 2 valuation, set between $2 billion and $4.5 billion and tied to EBITDA and revenue performance, gives Advance Intelligence Group and other remaining shareholders a stake in Atome's performance over the two years following Phase 1 completion, while providing Grab a measure of downside protection on the eventual full acquisition price.
Funding the entire $1.49 billion Phase 1 consideration from existing cash, including $0.26 billion of primary growth capital injected into Atome, allows Grab to complete the initial acquisition without raising external financing, underscoring the balance sheet capacity the company is deploying to expand its financial services ambitions across Southeast Asia.
The targeted combined gross loan portfolio of more than $6 billion by 2028 gives Grab's Financial Services segment a concrete growth benchmark against which investors can measure progress in the years following the Phase 1 completion, providing a clearer sense of the scale Grab expects its combined consumer lending business to reach.
The involvement of Advance Intelligence Group alongside certain other unnamed parties in the definitive agreements underscores that Atome's ownership structure prior to the deal included multiple stakeholders, whose interests are now being unwound in stages through the Phase 1 and Phase 2 sale structure agreed with Grab.