Samir Kumar

Samir is a product and business leader based in Singapore. Over a decade, Samir went from student to Android engineer, data scientist, product manager, product leader and General Manager, taking on greater responsibility at each step of his career. Today he runs Grab’s ride-hailing business across 900+ cities in 8 Southeast Asian countries.

One common thread that runs across his work is software that has to work in the complexity of the physical world and solve real-world problems. For Samir, that has meant dispatch and marketplace economics, maps and navigation, and more recently AI that makes decisions in the physical world.

Building GrabMaps from the ground up was the most formative stretch of Samir’s career. His team built SEA’s first self-sufficient mapping & navigation platform, digital infrastructure that now saves Grab >US$25M a year in direct costs & >US$100M in fulfillment costs.

GrabMaps shaped how Samir works. He believes the best work comes from teams, not individuals. What he’s found he’s good at is getting engineers, data scientists, designers and operators to work on problems millions of people feel every day. These days he’s doing that with agents that do real work for people in need, and backing and advising a few AI founders across Asia.

Outside work, Samir travels, reads aviation history, takes photographs, stays active, and spends quality time with his Shiba Inu. He’s also always one flimsy excuse away from rewatching Star Wars.