Grab, Uber’s Southeast Asian ride-hailing rival, is reportedly set to announce the acquisition of Indonesian online payment startup Kudo for $100m (£80m) – in a bid to roll out its services more customers in Southeast Asia.

According to Reuters, a source has said that the deal will be funded from the $700m that Grab promised to invest in Indonesia over the next four years, as it helps the nation to become Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy by 2020.

Kudo was founded in 2014 to facilitate online transactions for people in Indonesia – targeting people in small towns and cities without bank accounts and helping them to make purchases, with cash, through its agents.

The deal could be announced as early as next week and Grab is hoping the purchase will help it to expand in the online payment space – to provide further its service in the region – according to the Reuters source.

In November, Grab launched GrabPay credits – a cashless payment method – to enable customers to top-up their balance through local banks, ATMs, stores, and online. This followed the company’s $750m funding round in September.