- Vay offers an affordable on-demand car rental service enabled by remote driving technology.
- This investment enables Vay to scale and expand its operations in the U.S., while enhancing Grab’s mobility offerings and accelerating its autonomous and remote driving expertise in the long term.
- Initial investment of $60 million, followed by potential investment of $350 million, subject to Vay and Grab reaching agreed financial and operational milestones within the first year post-Closing.
Singapore and Las Vegas, November 10, 2025 – Grab Holdings Limited (“Grab”) announced that it had signed definitive agreements to invest in Vay Technology GmbH (“Vay”), a leading provider of automotive-grade remote driving technology, for $60 million in cash. The investment is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025 (“Closing”). Upon Closing, Grab will hold a minority equity interest in Vay.
Anthony Tan, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Grab, said, “We believe the future of mobility in Southeast Asia will be a hybrid model that relies on the expertise of our driver-partners alongside autonomous vehicles and remote driving services. This initial investment will help accelerate Vay’s remote driving technology development and create valuable technical and operational synergies for Grab’s long-term mobility strategy. It will also support Vay’s expansion in the U.S., where they serve a growing segment of consumers who prefer not to be car owners and are looking for more flexible, affordable, mobility options.”
Thomas von der Ohe, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Vay, said, “As we plan to deploy tens of thousands of shared, electric, driverless vehicles over the coming years, we couldn’t be more excited to have one of the best operators in the world join us on this journey. Mr. Tan and I share the same vision of reducing private car ownership with on-demand, shared vehicle services, which makes Grab an ideal partner.”
Through the Vay mobile app, customers request an electric vehicle to be remotely delivered to their location. When it arrives, the remote driver disconnects from the vehicle and the user takes over, driving it like a regular car. At the end of the trip, they exit the vehicle, and a remote driver resumes control, eliminating the time-consuming search for parking. This differentiated on-demand car rental service is especially suited for those completing point-to-point and multi-leg journeys, and is highly affordable for customers. As Vay’s customers drive themselves, remote drivers only operate vehicles at the beginning and end of each rental. This model allows each remote driver to support more customer trips per hour and achieve significantly lower service costs compared to traditional ride-hailing services. Combined with Vay’s fully camera-based, hardware-light system, it creates a cost-efficient model for on-demand mobility.
With operations across eight Southeast Asian countries in over 800 cities, Grab has a proven track record of commercializing large-scale on-demand mobility businesses. Grab will leverage its marketing, product development, fleet management, and go-to-market expertise to support Vay’s growth in the U.S., while exploring how Vay’s service model can complement Grab’s suite of mobility services in Southeast Asia. In addition, this investment supports Grab’s autonomous mobility strategy. For example, the driving data that Vay collects through its fleet could accelerate the training of AI models that improve autonomous vehicles’ perception of the real world. Grab’s announcement today follows recent investments in autonomous driving players, including WeRide and May Mobility.
Patrick Pichette, investor and former CFO of Google: “I have backed Vay for years, and I am even more excited to see what its proven technology and product can achieve now that it is paired with Grab’s operational excellence. Vay’s focus on the driverless rental car space, a complement to robotaxis, offers its own unique massive market opportunity, and a long-term opportunity to replace private car ownership.”
Vay launched its remote-driven commercial fleet in Las Vegas in 2024. Built to enable human-machine collaboration, Vay’s technology is designed to navigate complex, high-density environments, such as the Las Vegas Strip, one of the areas where Vay currently operates. The company has been on track to expand its fleet throughout 2025 and has completed tens of thousands of trips in Las Vegas. Its automotive-grade remote driving technology prioritizes high safety standards and low-latency connectivity and has been certified by German vehicle safety and motor transport authorities to rigorous automotive standards. Vay intends to add autonomous driving functionalities into its system based on its high-quality remote driving data. Its team consists of experts from autonomous and automotive industry companies, and its investors include Kinnevik, Coatue, Atomico, General Catalyst, and Eurazeo.
Investment Terms
In Grab’s initial investment of $60 million, Vay will issue to Grab new shares and zero-strike warrants that will become exercisable subject to, among other things, achievement of certain milestones over the three-year period after Closing. In addition, subject to financial and operating milestones, regulatory approvals and other conditions, Grab will increase its equity interest in Vay with an additional $350 million within the first year after Closing. The financial and operating milestones include consumer revenue, U.S. cities covered, technology and safety standards, and obtaining regulatory approvals (where applicable) for operating in additional U.S. cities. This potential additional purchase will consist of acquisition of new shares as well as shares from existing shareholders. If the milestones are not achieved within the initial one-year period after Closing, Grab has the option, but not the obligation, to purchase the additional equity interest. Three years after Closing, if Grab has completed the purchase of the additional equity interest and all the warrants have become exercisable in accordance with its terms, Grab will potentially own a majority equity interest in Vay on a fully-diluted basis (assuming there has been no share capital change in Vay).