Taxi-booking platform Grab announced Toyota will invest $1 billion into the company as the lead investor in its current round of financing.

Grab said in a statement the agreement will enable the companies to strengthen and expand an existing collaboration covering connected cars, and drive expansion of its range of services including GrabFood and GrabPay deeper into Southeast Asia.

As part of the investment, a Toyota executive will be appointed to Grab’s board and an employee will be seconded to Grab as an executive officer.

Grab operates in 217 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries.

The pair will collaborate on connected-car services running on Toyota’s Mobility Service Platform (MSPF) including user-based insurance, financing and predictive maintenance. Telematics-based insurance could reduce costs for Grab drivers, the companies stated.

In March Grab acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations, with the US-based company taking a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining its board.

Hyundai invested an undisclosed amount in Grab in January as part of a funding round which included investments from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing.