Anthony Tan is the co-founder and CEO of Grab, a “super app” that has built itself into the very infrastructure of eight major Southeast Asian countries.
Grab provides day-to-day services, such as ride-hailing, payments and food delivery, to over 35 million users. It is also a source of income for more than 13 million drivers and merchants.
The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2021 and brought in $2.36 billion in revenue in 2023, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Yet, despite coming from a wealthy Malaysian family and attending Harvard Business School, Tan said his journey to success has been far from easy.
“My father used to remind me, ‘Your grandfather beat this into our heads, and now it’s our turn to beat it into yours. You can sleep all you want when you’re dead,'” Tan said.
Fierce competition from Uber and family turmoil were just some of the barriers he had to overcome over the years.
“In a weird kind of way, I’m grateful because it helped me realize I had no other option but to make it work,” Tan said.
“Those pushed me to say, ‘Look, I can create something that solves real societal problems,'” he added.
