Grab's 70% tumble shows the limits of Singapore's tech dream

Anthony Tan had launched Grab in 2012, just as ride-hailing companies were taking off. Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder of Japan's SoftBank Group Corp., one of Uber's venture capital backers, was also behind Grab. Other investors included BlackRock, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and Temasek, the Singapore state investment firm.

Before it started publicly trading, Grab was valued at USD40 billion, almost as much as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines combined. Tan, only 39 at the time, was on track to become a billionaire.

But by the end of the day, Tan's luck turned. The stock plunged 21% by the close of the trading day. Then it fell more. Even after a recent bounce, Grab is still down almost 70%.

The market's cold appraisal raised questions about Grab's future and Son's investing acumen. It also hastened the demise of Wall Street's latest mania. Grab had raised money in a complicated maneuver involving a corporate structure called a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It was, and remains, the biggest SPAC deal in history.

Grab, Razer and Sea, three of Singapore's biggest tech hopes have stumbled. Sea's shares have fallen almost 90%; it laid off thousands to cut costs. Razer, which struggled as a public company, went private. Devadas Krishnadas, ­director of local consultant Future-Moves Group, says startups need to do more than burn investor capital and tout their growth potential. "Singapore's aspirations for tech-powered growth have been predicated more on promise than performance," he says.