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The story of never-ending Series H added a chapter today as , a credit-rating company, .

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This new partnership is expected to help both companies serve underbanked individuals within Asia, . For example, one goal behind the collaboration is to help entrepreneurs get access to loans across the region. More than 1 billion people in the region don鈥檛 have access to formal financial services, .

The first known element of 骋谤补产鈥檚 Series H was . Since then, the company has recorded nearly a dozen entrants to the round from companies as diverse as , , , , , and, today, Experian.

When the Singapore-based company from SoftBank, a partner at the firm said the huge infusion would go to help the company pursue 鈥渘ew opportunities across on-demand mobility, delivery and financial services as it continues to grow its offline-to-online platform across Southeast Asia.鈥�

We don鈥檛 quite know what that language means, but the business is working to expand, and a slew of big investors are betting on its success. It doesn鈥檛 hurt that the company it holds 60 percent of the two-wheel market and 70 percent of the four-wheel market in Indonesia, the home-turf of its main competitor.

While most venture rounds are raised and closed in one go, sometimes a special round can stretch out over a multi-month period. In such cases, a firm may keep a pre-money valuation and allow more capital to come in at that price. Older firms raising at higher valuations (implying less dilution per dollar of additional capital due to a higher base price) can allow rounds to stay open longer than a firm raising a Series B, for example.

Does an ongoing round point a bullish or bearish signal for a company? Neither, inherently. In this case we know that Grab thinks that it needs billions more to meet its own vision. That鈥檚 bearish to some degree given the implied losses it will endure along the way. But it鈥檚 also bullish in that Grab can raise the money it wants.

That said, 骋谤补产鈥檚 Series H is now over a year old from first close to the most recent. We鈥檙e nearly at a loss to come up with a historical antecedent of similar scale and timeline. 骋谤补产鈥檚 Series H is worth several billion dollars鈥攊ndeed, at least three of its components have been worth $1 billion or more鈥攎aking it one of the largest venture rounds of all time, if we can still really consider it a single round.

The company says its aiming to close the Series H round at the end of 2019, at around $6.5 billion dollars.

Below, you’ll find a chart of Grab’s prior funding history. It excludes rounds where dollar amounts aren’t known, like this Experian deal.

Rivals

The more than $9 billion that Grab has raised is an eye-popping sum. But it鈥檚 less than half of what China-based ridehailing Didi has raised. According to Crunchbase, has during its life as a private company.

is as well, for example. In short, the ridehailing world has two hard laws. First, that none of the companies operating in the niche make money. And, second, that they need more of it.

But there is good news in the market for ridehailing companies. Uber and Lyft are now flush with fresh IPO cash, and after a rocky start to life as a public company, Uber itself managed to crest its IPO price recently. Since then, the firm has fallen back under the $45 per-share mark, but Uber is not in danger of falling apart like, say, Blue Apron, for example.

Indeed, money-losing tech companies are perhaps coming back into vogue. Some recent IPOs featuring unprofitable shops are performing so well as public companies that some VCs are complaining about underpriced IPOs. In that climate, Grab investors, both extant and potential, could view their investment as possibly liquid sooner than we might have guessed.

Regardless, we鈥檒l be back when this Series H adds another partner and gets closer to its final, $6.5 billion goal.

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