You have to see Khazanah position at that time

When Khazanah is investing a lot in UBER, there is one upstart that start MyTaxi and supporting the taxi drivers

If you can recall, MyTaxi even lobbying the gov to ban UBER and even supporting the taxi drivers objection of UBER. They also claimed that UBER will be banned because it is killing the taxi drivers.

Not until late in the game where suddenly Grab decided to ditch MyTaxi concept and copied UBER.

So if you in Khazanah position do you want to put investment in an upstart that just short while ago telling everyone UBER concept is evil and suddenly want to copy UBER themselves?

Its easy for us to talk kok now because Grab is successful now but you have to understand Khazanah decision making at that time

No issue for me. People can change opinion, business can change business direction. Maybe you can say Khazanah didn't want to invest in Grab because they were hypocritical/unethical, but then don't create excuse that Khazanah already invested in Uber, so cannot invest in Grab.

Especially when Grab decided to copy Uber. If one believe the Uber concept can succeed, why can't you also believe in local startup that copies Uber?

Its easy as you have the benefit of the hindsight

Its not an excuse. khazanah already have substantial money in UBER and they know (at that time) that UBER is much more profitable than Grab

Grab during that time just a dying startup that cannot even finish their job with MyTaxi.

No one can predict the future

https://www.grab.com/my/blog/myteksi-receiv...tional-funding/

For a dying startup, alot of other companies seems very willing to put in money.