Grab Q2 ride take rate falls as incentives rise

Grab’s on-demand business is being propped up by heavy promotional spending. Total incentive costs reached $706 million in the quarter, including $317 million for driver rewards and $389 million for consumer discounts, lifting on-demand promotions to 10.9% of GMV, up 72 basis points from a year earlier.

The strategy appears to be working on activity. Monthly active drivers rose 19% to a record, aided by more than $7 million in fuel support, while mobility transactions jumped 28% and monthly transacting users hit a record 53.9 million.

That volume growth helped offset the lower take rate and support profitability. Mobility still generated $191 million of EBITDA, more than 70% of Grab’s total, while group adjusted EBITDA rose 54% to $168 million and operating profit improved to $19 million.

Delivery remains the larger revenue engine, with GMV of $4.249 billion and revenue of $531 million, equal to a roughly 12.5% take rate, but its margin profile is also improving. Adjusted EBITDA margin on delivery GMV rose to 2.3% from 1.8%, helped by a 21% increase in active advertisers and higher merchant spending on GrabAds.

The takeaway for investors is that Grab is buying scale in a high-rate, fuel-sensitive environment, and the market will keep weighing that against the company’s ability to convert volume into durable margins. The next catalysts are whether the incentive burn moderates, whether ad revenue keeps scaling and how quickly management can sustain growth without further pressuring take rates.