Grab & Sea: How ASEAN’s Fintech Boom Is Entering Its Next Growth Phase

From super-apps and e-commerce to payments, lending and digital banking, Grab and Sea are increasingly turning their large user ecosystems into new financial growth engines.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy may be entering a new phase of growth.

For years, companies such as Grab and Sea built their businesses by expanding users, transactions and market share across mobility, deliveries and e-commerce. But their latest results suggest the next opportunity could lie deeper within those existing ecosystems: financial services.

Grab and Sea’s 2Q26 results show that payments, lending and digital banking are becoming increasingly important contributors to growth, while both companies continue to improve profitability.

For investors, the development highlights a broader trend in ASEAN technology — the shift from simply acquiring users to monetising existing users more effectively.

Financial Services Are Becoming a Bigger Growth Engine

Grab’s core on-demand business remained resilient in the second quarter. On-demand GMV increased 21% year-on-year to US$6.5 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose 54% to US$168 million.

But its Financial Services segment stood out even more.

Revenue from the segment increased 59% year-on-year, while Grab’s gross loan portfolio across GrabFin, GxS Bank, GX Bank and Superbank surged 197% to US$2.3 billion.

Management expects the Financial Services segment to reach adjusted EBITDA profitability in the second half of 2026.

Sea is seeing a similar trend through its Monee financial services business. Its loan book grew 62% year-on-year to US$11.1 billion, while Monee generated US$288 million in adjusted EBITDA.

The numbers point to an important shift: financial services are moving from being complementary products to becoming meaningful growth engines in their own right.

From Transactions to Lending

One of the most interesting aspects of the fintech strategies of Grab and Sea is how their existing ecosystems provide an advantage in lending.

Both companies operate close to where consumers and merchants transact. This gives them access to behavioural and transaction data that can be used to assess credit risk and improve lending decisions.

Grab uses proprietary transaction data from its ecosystem to underwrite loans, while its digital banking operations provide access to relatively low-cost deposits that can support lending as the business scales.

Sea’s Monee follows a similar data-driven approach. Instead of relying solely on static credit information, it analyses users’ behaviour over time.

Recent improvements to its underwriting process increased approval rates by around 10% without increasing risk.

Sea is also expanding its fintech ecosystem beyond Shopee. More than 20% of its SPayLater portfolio now comes from transactions outside Shopee, while monthly transacting users on its standalone ShopeePay app more than doubled during the quarter.

Sea also added 5.3 million first-time borrowers, with active credit users increasing 34% year-on-year to more than 40 million.

This creates a powerful ecosystem effect:

More transactions → more data → better credit assessment → greater access to financial services → deeper customer engagement.

Two Ecosystems, One Fintech Strategy

While Grab and Sea have different core businesses, their broader strategy is increasingly similar.

Grab’s ecosystem is built around mobility and deliveries, with digital banking providing financial infrastructure that can support lending and other financial products.

Sea starts with e-commerce, using Shopee’s large base of buyers and sellers as the foundation for ShopeePay, SPayLater and Monee.

In both cases, the objective is to deepen relationships with existing users rather than simply acquire new ones.

Financial services can increase customer lifetime value by allowing companies to cross-sell additional products within their ecosystems.

Grab is also looking to add a wealth-management pillar through its proposed acquisition of Stash, which management says manages more than US$5 billion in assets.

The broader opportunity is therefore not simply about digital payments. It is about building increasingly comprehensive financial ecosystems around existing consumer behaviour.

Growth Is No Longer the Only Metric

Another important takeaway from the latest results is the increasing focus on profitable growth.

Grab’s overall adjusted EBITDA margin expanded from 13.3% to 16.9%, while Superbank’s cost-to-income ratio declined to 55%. Management is targeting a ratio below 50% by the end of 2026.

At Sea, Shopee generated US$255 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. Management is targeting approximately US$1 billion of adjusted EBITDA from Shopee for FY2026.

This improving profitability matters because the next phase of ASEAN technology growth may be judged less by user numbers alone and more by how effectively companies can convert their ecosystems into sustainable earnings.

Grab vs Sea: What the Numbers Show

Based on FactSet data as of 19 August 2026, Grab traded at 23.5x forward P/E, compared with 32.7x for Sea.

Sea reported a higher ROE of 15.1%, versus 4.1% for Grab, while both companies remained in net cash positions.

The comparison reflects the different stages of development of their businesses. Grab’s Financial Services segment is still targeting adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2H2026, while Sea has already established meaningful profitability within Monee and Shopee.

What Investors Should Watch Next

The growth of fintech within these platforms also comes with risks.

Credit quality will be increasingly important as loan books expand rapidly. Grab’s loan portfolio grew 197% year-on-year, while Sea’s Monee loan book increased 62%. Rising credit losses or weaker economic conditions could affect profitability.

Regulation is another consideration. Digital banking and lending rules differ across ASEAN markets, and tighter regulations could increase compliance costs or slow loan growth.

Competition is also intensifying, with traditional banks expanding into digital lending and regional platforms competing across e-commerce, payments and financial services.

Finally, investors will be watching whether Grab and Sea can deliver on their profitability targets, particularly Grab’s Financial Services breakeven target for 2H2026 and Sea’s goal of approximately US$1 billion in FY2026 Shopee adjusted EBITDA.

Accessing Grab and Sea Through SGX SDRs

For Singapore investors, exposure to both companies has become more accessible through Singapore Depository Receipts (SDRs) listed on SGX.

Grab trades under the SGX SDR ticker UGBD, while Sea trades under UGGD. Both began trading on 22 July 2026.

The SDR structure provides Singapore investors with a way to access the two US-listed technology companies through SGX.

As ASEAN’s digital economy evolves, Grab and Sea are demonstrating how established consumer platforms can increasingly monetise their ecosystems through payments, lending, digital banking and wealth management.

The key question for investors may no longer be simply how many users these platforms can acquire, but how much more value they can generate from the users they already have.

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