Grab quietly closed an office full of engineers on $300k+ and nobody noticed
When Grab laid off 1,000 of its employees in mid-2023, CEO Anthony Tan said the $19bn Singapore fintech was trying to "rebalance [its] resources." Little was revealed about the specifics at the time, including the closure of an expensive office that has slipped under the radar ever since.
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Sources close to the matter, speaking anonymously, confirmed that Grab closed its Seattle office as part of the layoffs. The location was opened in 2016 and aimed to grow to at least 140 people within two years of opening. The office was home to some senior Grab staff, including Mark Porter, CTO of its transport business (although he left prior to the layoffs).
The layoffs were thought to affect the vast majority of staff, although insiders say "a few people were retained due to their domain knowledge" in a remote capacity.
Grab's Seattle staff were costly. While firmwide staff costs per head in 2023 were $104k, engineers on Levels.fyi reported an average total compensation of $271.5k in Seattle. Multiple engineers reported salaries above $300k.
In the fintech's 2024 20-F form, filed with the SEC eight months after the layoffs, Grab still listed Seattle as one of its ten (now eight) tech hubs. However, in its most recent 20-F, Seattle was removed. Its Taipei tech hub was also removed from the list, though that hub's fate is unclear.
"The U.S. office was nothing more than a façade," one of Grab's former Seattle software engineers told us, adding that there was, "no real long-term commitment to its employees." The employee claimed that Grab offered little support to people with visa complications arising from the layoffs.
There are also claims that Grab pressured employees to remove social media posts complaining about the layoffs by putting their severance packages at risk, although this is unconfirmed.
Shifting roles across to lower cost locations has been a trend in fintech in recent years. Prior to the layoffs, Grab jobs in Malaysia outnumbered jobs in Singapore ten to one. There are still more Grab jobs in Malaysia than Singapore today, although the difference isn't nearly as big.
Grab did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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