Southeast Asia’s Grab is taking a leaf out of the Uber playbook and bringing in a prominent insider to get ahead in its most important market.
Uber popularized the approach of nabbing execs like ex-Obama advisor David Plouffe and various others , and that’s the thesis behind ride-sharing firm Grab’s latest hire: the former chief of Indonesia’s National Police.
Badrodin Haiti, who spent a total of 35 years in the force, has joined Grab to take up the role of President Commissioner in Indonesia. That’ll see him manage the firm’s corporate governance in its largest market.
Five-year-old Grab, which is valued at $3 billion following a $750 million round last year , is pushing Uber hard in Southeast Asia, where it claims to have 580,000 drivers and over 30 million app downloads across six countries.
