Scaling for good: Insights from the ESG startups who graduated Grab’s accelerator

Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) Team

. January 27, 2026 . Regional

The graduation of Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) Batch 8 in January 2026 marks the latest chapter for our startup accelerator in Indonesia. This cohort focused specifically on environmental and social impact, bringing together five Indonesian ESG startups that are testing new ways to address sustainability in a complex market.

(Also read: Meet Batch 8 of Grab Ventures Velocity, Grab’s impactful startup accelerator)

After an intense programme of mentorship and running pilots with merchants and users in Grab’s digital ecosystem, the five startups are ready to apply key learnings to the next iteration of their products and services.

Key insights on scaling up ESG startup solutions

Collectively, our biggest takeaway this year was about the importance of building a “sustainability ecosystem”. ESG adoption is not one-size-fits-all. Rather, every customer segment has a unique need, for which innovative startups can provide specialised products—whether that’s charging stations for Grab’s driver-partners with electric vehicles in the case of Casion, the reliable pick-up system for Grab merchants’ recyclable waste provided by Rekosistem, or Jejakin’s emissions-tracking platform for Grab’s large corporate clients.

It was seeing how these niche solutions, when layered together, create a comprehensive ecosystem of impact that feels personal and practical to the end user.

How ESG startups are leveraging Grab’s platform

By partnering with Grab, these startups gain access to a massive network of merchants, delivery partners, and consumers, effectively using our established credibility as a growth engine to test their products in real-world conditions. These experiments provide the data and feedback needed to refine their models and find a sustainable product-market fit.

The ESG startups in batch 8 came up with creative and innovative ways to leverage Grab’s unique digital ecosystem and services:

The next steps for the ESG startups in our programme

Some startups have already recorded the impact of their pilot experiments. Sirsak, for example, managed to reach more than 23,000 unique Grab users who used their GrabFood promo codes to support a waste collectors’ welfare programme.

Rekosistem has been piloting its Spunbond Collection Campaign. In collaboration with one of Grab merchant-partners, the startup provides drop boxes across all participating merchant stores where customers can drop spunbond bags to be recycled by Rekosistem.

Rekosistem has also upgraded its own app with a GrabExpress API integration. This provides customers of Rekosistem’s recycling service with an on-demand waste pick-up option, as previously they were responsible for dropping off their recyclable waste at one of Rekosistem’s collection sites themselves. This is Rekosistem’s first collaboration of this kind.

Building the future together

While GVV’s Batch 8 has officially ended, the work is just beginning. Most pilot programmes are still ongoing and awaiting their final evaluation. Grab continues to engage with the startups and is considering the long-term integration of some solutions, as we continue to push toward Grab’s 2040 Carbon Neutrality goal.

As we look towards welcoming Batch 9 later this year, we hope to move toward more cross-startup collaboration, where our merchants and driver partners might use one niche solution for their supply chain and another for their waste management, creating a holistic solution for our platform and a bigger impact for the environment.

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