The “superapp”, founded in 2012, offers deliveries, rides and financial services in eight Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Its shares were up 4.7 per cent premarket after Tan’s announcement to staff. The stock had climbed as much as 5.6 per cent premarket, extending earlier gains on a Bloomberg News report of the cuts.
In May, Grab reported a quarterly loss of US$250 million but said revenue in the first quarter of this year rose 130.3 per cent to US$525 million from a year ago.
In February, it issued an upbeat forecast for full-year revenue for 2023 and brought forward its profitability timeline.
The US-listed Grab’s last job cuts were in 2020, when 360 people were laid off in response to the impact of the pandemic. The company had 11,934 staff as of the end of 2022, including about 2,000 from its acquisition of a grocery chain last year, its latest annual report said.
In September last year, it said it had no plans to undertake mass layoffs despite the weak market. In December, Tan told staff the company was freezing most hiring, payrises for senior managers, and cutting travel and expense budgets.