Grab Holdings has agreed to buy a 60% stake in Atome Financial, the Singapore-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) and consumer lending platform, for $1.49 billion in cash, the companies said in a joint statement on September 15.
Shoppers using Grab PayLater or Atome will see no immediate changes. The first phase still needs regulatory approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2027. Grab shares fell 3.64% on Nasdaq after the announcement, CNBC reported, closing at $2.91, down about 40% this year and near a 52-week low, according to AskTraders.
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How the $1.49B Deal Is Structured
The purchase runs in two phases. In the first, Grab pays $1.49 billion in cash for 60% of Atome. Of that sum, $260 million is primary growth capital, which means the money goes into Atome to fund growth rather than to the selling shareholders.
Once phase one closes, Grab will fold Atome into its Financial Services segment while the existing management team keeps running the business. In phase two, about two years later, Grab will buy the remaining 40% at a price set by 13 times annualised adjusted EBITDA, weighted at 75%, and 2.5 times annualised revenue, weighted at 25%. The valuation carries a floor of $2 billion and a cap of $4.5 billion, with at least half paid in cash.
Chief financial officer Peter Oey told CNBC the two-stage structure was designed in part to de-risk the deal on capital allocation. Funded entirely from existing cash, it should turn accretive to group adjusted EBITDA on completion and leaves the share repurchase programme untouched, he said.
Why Grab Chose to Buy
Grab has offered instalment payments since 2019 through a joint venture with Japan's Credit Saison. President and chief operating officer Alex Hungate told Reuters that Grab built BNPL products in Malaysia and Singapore, and that buying Atome speeds up expansion into the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
Buying also skips years of building credit models and absorbing the losses that come with refining them. Hungate said Grab's three digital banks, GXS Bank in Singapore, GXBank in Malaysia and Superbank in Indonesia, can cut the cost of funding Atome's assets. Oey told CNBC that Atome's brand partnerships in travel, beauty and e-commerce give Grab reach in segments where it is less established.
Grab expects its Financial Services segment, including Atome, to generate $500 million in adjusted EBITDA and hold a loan book above $6 billion by 2028. Group targets now stand at $1.7 billion in adjusted EBITDA and annual revenue growth above 30% between 2025 and 2028.
What Changes for BNPL Users
Once the deal completes, the combined group promises more flexible payment options for Grab's nearly 54 million monthly transacting users, plus cross-selling across Atome's network of more than 30,000 partner brands.
Atome's AI lending infrastructure will pair with Grab's ecosystem data to sharpen credit checks, a mix the companies said should widen access to credit while guarding against over-indebtedness. The statement did not specify which data this involves. Licensing, consumer protection, data privacy and responsible lending duties stay unchanged in each market.
Financial inclusion sits at the centre of the pitch. Hungate said 68% of Grab's driver-partner borrowers in 2025 accessed formal credit for the first time through the company, with half saying they did so to avoid predatory lenders. Citing a Temasek report, the companies noted that more than 70% of adults in Southeast Asia remain unbanked or underbanked.
Malaysia Tightens BNPL Rules First
The deal lands as Malaysia moves first in the region to license pay-later providers. The Consumer Credit Act 2025 was gazetted on December 31, 2025 and came into force on March 1, 2026, putting BNPL firms under the Consumer Credit Commission.
Deputy finance minister Liew Chin Tong said in March that Malaysians aged 30 and below account for around 40% of BNPL transactions in the country. Pay-later credit remains a small slice of household debt, he said, but fast uptake among young consumers, including for daily necessities, points to wage pressure and needs watching.
Licensing for credit providers started on June 1, 2026 with a six-month transition period. The commission's conduct standards require affordability checks for credit limits above RM1,000, while late payment charges may only cover providers' actual costs, Malay Mail reported.
Indonesia has also tightened eligibility, with OJK rules from July 1, 2026 setting income and age floors and capping repayments as a share of income. Non-performing pay-later financing hit 3.44% in May, up from 2.99% in April. Singapore still runs on a voluntary code, with BNPL under 2% of card payment value in early 2025, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has said.
The Risk Sitting in the Loan Book
A bigger book means bigger credit risk. Grab reported net impairment losses on financial assets up 81% to $120 million in the first half of 2026, from $66 million a year earlier, as loan-loss provisions rose with the portfolio.
Atome's own scale comes with a caveat. Its 25 million cumulative transacted users and $1 billion gross loan portfolio at June 30, 2026 sit on unaudited management accounts. Its parent, Advance Intelligence Group, counts SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Warburg Pincus, Ares and EDBI among its investors and owns Kredit Pintar, described as Indonesia's leading digital lender.
Why This Matters for Malaysian Fintech
For Malaysia, the deal signals consolidation arriving just as the licensing era begins. A combined Grab and Atome would face the Consumer Credit Commission as one heavyweight, armed with bank funding through GXBank, while smaller pay-later firms absorb the same compliance costs without the same balance sheet.
With under-30s driving two in five local BNPL transactions, how the merged group prices credit, checks affordability and handles collections will shape the product young Malaysians meet at checkout.
What to Watch Next
- Regulatory approvals across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand on the road to the Q3 2027 close.
- Malaysia's licensing transition, which runs to December 2026, and which providers make the cut.
- Loan quality, as impairments test whether growth is coming at the right price.
- Phase two maths, where Atome's earnings decide a valuation anywhere between $2 billion and $4.5 billion.