Two years after founding his Uber-like taxi service, Anthony Tan was already unabashedly ambitious. “If we get this right, we can literally go into the history books,” the Harvard Business School-educated entrepreneur proclaimed in 2014.
Seven years later, the 39-year-old scion of one of Malaysia’s wealthiest families is poised to do exactly that. His company, Grab, south-east Asia’s most valuable start-up, is finalising the world’s biggest merger with a Spac, or special purpose acquisition company. It would value his business at about $35bn and list it on Nasdaq.
The eye-popping numbers give a sense that Tan is blazing a trail for the entire region, which is very much in character. “Anthony always wants to be number one. He is the guy in Seat 1a and the first one off the plane,” says a lawyer whose firm works for Grab.