Grab to Acquire Controlling Stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 Billion
Grab to Acquire Controlling Stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 Billion #
Grab Holdings has agreed to acquire a 60% controlling stake in Singapore-based buy now, pay later provider Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, the companies announced on 15 September 2026. The deal is the company’s largest disclosed transaction in consumer finance.
The acquisition is structured in two stages. An initial close, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected by the third quarter of 2027, after which Grab will consolidate Atome into its financial services segment. Atome’s existing management team will remain in place. Grab has also agreed to buy the remaining 40% stake roughly two years after the first close, at a price tied to Atome’s subsequent performance: a 13x multiple on annualised adjusted EBITDA and 2.5x on annualised revenue, weighted 75% and 25% respectively. The second-stage valuation has a floor of $2 billion and a cap of $4.5 billion, with at least half the consideration to be settled in cash.
Atome Financial, the digital lending arm of Advance Intelligence Group, operates across five Southeast Asian markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Its products include BNPL loans, consumer cash loans, BNPL cards and broader digital lending. The company has recorded 25 million cumulative transacted users across those markets.
For Grab, the deal adds scale in a credit market the company has been building in since 2019, when it launched its PayLater instalment product via a joint venture with Japanese credit card firm Credit Saison. Grab President and Chief Operating Officer Alex Hungate said purchasing Atome would allow the company to “leapfrog the timeline” for expanding credit services into the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, rather than spending years developing underwriting models market by market.
Grab CFO Peter Oey, speaking to CNBC, described consumer lending as the “next frontier” for the group as it seeks higher-margin revenue streams to complement its ride-hailing and delivery operations. The company also cited Atome’s AI-powered credit scoring infrastructure as a strategic asset that would widen access to finance for consumers without a formal credit history.
Alongside the deal announcement, Grab raised its group financial targets, now projecting $1.7 billion in Adjusted EBITDA and a revenue CAGR exceeding 30% from 2025 to 2028. The company said separately it plans to complete the roughly $900 million remaining on its share repurchase programme within the next 12 months. For its financial services segment, Grab is targeting $500 million in Adjusted EBITDA and a gross loan portfolio above $6 billion by 2028.
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