Grab Holdings has agreed to acquire a 60 percent controlling stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, a move that widens the Southeast Asian company’s push into consumer lending. The purchase includes $260 million earmarked as growth capital for the business. Atome Financial operates buy now, pay later credit and other digital lending services and sits within Advance Intelligence Group. Grab said the deal would accelerate the growth and profitability of its financial services segment.
The transaction is structured in two phases. Grab expects to complete the first phase, covering the 60 percent stake, by the third quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. A second phase covering the remaining 40 percent is planned about two years later, with a valuation based on a performance formula weighted 75 percent to adjusted earnings and 25 percent to revenue. That later stage carries a price floor of $2 billion and a ceiling of $4.5 billion.
Atome Financial runs a digital lending platform across five Southeast Asian markets: Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. The company reports 25 million cumulative transacted users and more than 30,000 brand partners, along with a gross loan portfolio of about $1 billion as of the middle of 2026. Its products span buy now, pay later loans, consumer cash loans, credit cards and other lending services aimed at online and in-store shoppers.
Alex Hungate, Grab’s president and chief operating officer, said Atome’s use of artificial intelligence to underwrite loans would help scale and strengthen the wider Grab ecosystem. The company pointed to the large share of underbanked consumers in the region, noting that more than 70 percent of Southeast Asian adults lack adequate access to banking services. Grab described limited overlap between the two businesses and said their capabilities were complementary across payments, lending and its existing user base.
Grab set financial targets tied to the acquisition, projecting that its financial services division could reach $500 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 2028, with a combined gross loan portfolio above $6 billion. The company also raised its group-wide goals for 2028 to $1.7 billion in adjusted EBITDA and a revenue compound annual growth rate above 30 percent from 2025. Grab operates ride-hailing, delivery and financial services across Southeast Asia.
