Grab in Talks to Acquire Majority Stake in Singapore's Atome Valued Over $2 Billion

According to Bloomberg, Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery company Grab Holdings is negotiating to acquire a majority stake in Atome Financial, a buy-now-pay-later platform in Singapore owned by Advance Intelligence Group, with the deal potentially valuing the business at over $2 billion. Discussions are ongoing and no agreement has been reached yet.

Atome Financial is part of the group's consumer finance sector, operating the BNPL brand Atome and the Indonesian digital loan business Kredit Pintar. Investors in the parent company include SoftBank Vision Fund II, Warburg Pincus, Northstar Group, and Singapore's EDBI. In 2023, the group raised $80 million, bringing total funding to over $700 million; a previous round in 2021 pushed the group's valuation above $2 billion.

Atome has already undertaken significant debt and shareholder investments. In January 2026, a syndicated loan was expanded to $345 million, up from $200 million in 2024, with HSBC continuing as the structuring arranger and DBS leading the deal, joined by Mitsui Sumitomo, Cathay United Bank, Fubon, and SPD Bank. In May, the parent company subscribed to approximately 38 million shares at $3.90 each, injecting $149 million. Atome is expected to achieve its first full-year profit in 2024, with operating revenue of $236 million and GMV exceeding $2 billion; the group disclosed projected revenue of about $470 million for 2025 and an annualized net income of about $800 million with annualized GMV exceeding $6 billion for 2026.

Grab's financial line is still operating at a loss: in Q1 2026, adjusted EBITDA losses were $17 million, with a loan balance of $1.44 billion, nearly doubling from $625 million a year earlier. The company aims to break even in the second half of the year. In June, there were reports that Grab might participate in Atome's financing round exceeding $100 million. Grab is also pursuing the acquisition of a majority stake in the U.S. advisory platform Stash, acquiring Validus' Singapore business from GXS Bank, and intermittent merger talks with Indonesia's GoTo.

The deal structure has not been disclosed, but a majority stake implies control rather than a financial co-investment. BNPL services have been rolled out in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines with the Atome Card, with reported card issuance in the Philippines exceeding 3 million. Regulatory and funding costs are the next hurdles: consumer credit licenses, asset quality, and syndicate loan renewal terms will determine whether the $2 billion valuation can be realized at closing.

From a market mechanism perspective, the buyer aims to fill the consumer credit gap with a super app, while the seller is a profitable BNPL platform needing lower funding costs and greater distribution channels. The event is driven by merger rumors, with funding not yet forming a definitive equity or cash offer. Beneficiaries include Grab's financial services and Atome's merchant network, which can channel ride-hailing and food delivery traffic into installment payments; pressured parties are independent BNPLs and digital loan platforms relying on high-interest customer acquisition. If SoftBank and other existing shareholders cash out their majority stake, the valuation anchor will shift from the group's private equity round to the credit quality post-Grab's consolidation.

Grab trades on NASDAQ, and the immediate impact of the rumors on GRAB's stock price depends on whether the market interprets it as "buying loan books with cash" or "reducing customer acquisition costs through traffic." Atome remains a private company and has not disclosed a transaction price.

Source: Public Information