Grab in Talks to Acquire Majority Stake in Atome Financial

Grab Holdings, the Singapore-headquartered super-app that dominates ride-hailing and food delivery across Southeast Asia, is in active negotiations to acquire a majority stake in Atome Financial, according to a Bloomberg report. The potential deal would mark a significant move by Grab to deepen its footprint in the regional financial services sector, where competition for digital lending and payments customers is intensifying.

Atome Financial operates a buy-now-pay-later platform with a presence across several Southeast Asian markets, positioning it as a natural strategic fit for Grab's existing GrabPay and GrabFinance ecosystem. A majority acquisition — rather than a minority investment — would give Grab direct operational control, allowing it to integrate Atome's credit infrastructure more tightly into its superapp platform and potentially extend installment-payment options to its large existing user base.

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The timing is notable. Super-apps across the region are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that their financial services arms can generate sustainable revenue, as investor scrutiny of profitability has sharpened since the post-pandemic tech selloff. For Grab, adding a scaled BNPL operation could accelerate the monetization of its payments vertical without building the credit-scoring and merchant-network capabilities from scratch.

BNPL has faced regulatory headwinds in more mature markets like Australia and the United Kingdom, but Southeast Asia's large unbanked and underbanked population continues to make the model attractive to platforms that can embed credit seamlessly into everyday commerce. If the deal closes, it would also raise consolidation questions for other BNPL players operating in the region, as larger platforms increasingly absorb fintech startups rather than compete with them.

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