UEM Sunrise joins hands with Grab to drive cashless culture

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 2): UEM Sunrise Bhd and Grab Malaysia today inked a strategic partnership to drive cashless culture in and around Publika, Mont’Kiara and Iskandar Puteri, Johor. 

The partnership will see Grab offering its full range of services to benefit the business objectives of retailers, whilst changing the dining and shopping experience for customers. 

“The benefits [of this partnership] go across everyone – the tenants and the customers. For customers, it is convenient as you don't have to carry cash and for the tenants, you get to collect data on how your customer spends and ensure a seamless transaction between you and your customers,” said UEM Sunrise managing director and CEO Anwar Syahrin Abdul Ajib at the launch ceremony in Publika today.

As part of the partnership, UEM Sunrise will assist Grab to ensure that a significant number of their tenants will adopt GrabPay as one of their preferred cashless payment methods. 

There are 284 tenants in Publika currently, according to Anwar. Some of Publika’s merchants who are now on the Grab platform, either as GrabFood or GrabPay merchants are Plan B, Red Revenge, Baskin Robbins and TeaLive, who has been a GrabPay merchant since the launch of the mobile wallet. 

“Of course we hope to achieve 100% tenants [in Publika] to use GrabPay but for a start, we aim for 60%,” said the head of GrabPay Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines Ooi Huey Tyng at the press conference. 

Aside from Publika, Grab will also support UEM Sunrise developments in Iskandar Puteri, Johor by offering a similar suite of services there.

“While we believe we should initiate the first step, we pride ourselves in going beyond bricks and mortar to create an ecosystem through digital initiatives and take our vision further. Hence, we are very excited about such partnership with Grab that adds value to the people we are building for,” said Anwar. 

He added that Publika and Iskandar Puteri are just the beginning of the partnership as the group does not rule out the possibility of working together with Grab in future retail malls by UEM Sunrise.  

"As a homegrown tech-enabled company, we are heavily invested in making our customer's lives more convenient by addressing their everyday needs. In doing so, we are able to help shape a new Malaysia that supports innovation economy where micro entrepreneurs can flourish," said Grab Malaysia’s country head Sean Goh.