Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing company Grab plans to double its staff in Singapore to 3,000 by the time it moves into its new headquarters next year.

The ride-hailing firm had announced in February that it will build a new headquarter in Singapore in one-north. Ascendas Reit will develop and manage the building and the expected cost about of setting up a new headquarter is about S$181.2 Mn. Towards this, Grab has signed an 11-year lease for new offices, with a five-year renewal option and will occupy all of the building, which has an estimated floor area of 42,310 square metres.

Grab chief executive officer Anthony Tan, at the ground-breaking ceremony, stated, “The new building will allow us to put our growing team of up to 3,000 Grabbers under one roof. It is an affirmation of our long-term investment in Singapore."

The expansion drive comes as Grab has raised US$4.5 Bn (S$6.1 Bn) from investors including SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund as it intensifies efforts to become a one-stop shop for on-demand services in Southeast Asia. In this direction, last year it had also acquired rival Uber Technologies Inc's business in the region.

In addition, Grab, which has 6,000 employees globally, will also add 1,000 technology jobs across its research and development centres in Bengaluru, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Seattle, and Singapore. These jobs will include data scientists, artificial intelligence researchers, and engineers.