Grab acquires restaurant reservation platform Chope

SINGAPORE - Ride-hailing company Grab has acquired restaurant reservation platform Chope, both companies said on July 22.

A Grab spokeswoman said its focus is to help level the playing field for small and medium-sized businesses, which form the vast majority of merchants on its platform, and do not have the same resources that big food-and-beverage brands have.

Grab wants to empower these merchants to grow and manage their businesses more efficiently, she said.

“We believe the addition of Chope’s products and services provides more synergies for our merchant-partners, especially in helping them capture online-to-offline opportunities.”

When asked how much the acquisition cost and what the partnership would be like, Grab said it could not share more information. 

According to an internal e-mail seen by The Business Times, Grab will take over Chope’s operations in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

In the e-mail, Grab head of deliveries Ngiam Xin Wei said the acquisition of Chope will bolster Grab’s omni-commerce strategy and help accelerate its efforts to capture the dining-out opportunity.

It will also strengthen Grab’s relevance as consumers’ “preferred everyday super app”, the e-mail said.

Chope founder Arrif Ziaudeen said in a statement that considering today’s challenging and competitive market, it has chosen to seek a partner to “help us pursue new opportunities for sustainable growth”.

He added: “We evaluated potential buyers and found the best fit with Grab – a company with a mission aligned to ours in connecting restaurants to diners.”

Chope made its name as a reservations mobile app to help diners to book, or “chope”, their tables in restaurants and cafes. It was founded in 2011 and is available in seven cities: Singapore, Jakarta, Bali, Bangkok, Phuket, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

It has more than 13,000 restaurants in its network, according to its website.

“Chope has built products that have served and delighted countless restaurants and their customers for over a decade. We have proudly achieved so much on our journey,” Mr Ziaudeen said.

“Together (with Grab), we are poised to deliver even greater value to our customers and set new standards in a competitive industry.”

Chope reported US$22.7 million (S$30.5 million) in revenue in 2022, surpassing its pre-pandemic figures and marking a 31 per cent increase from 2021, according to an article by Tech In Asia.

This recovery was the result of outside dining making a comeback in 2022, while vouchers and gift cards were the biggest revenue generators, it added.

In 2022, Grab bought food review and reservation site HungryGoWhere, which had closed in 2021. Grab relaunched the site and said that it could leverage insights derived from Grab’s super app, such as food trends and frequently visited places in Singapore.