Uber's $1.6 billion rival in Southeast Asia is gearing up for a fight

Uber's main rival in Southeast Asia is raising capital as it prepares for what could be the next ride-hailing battle.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Singapore-based Grab plans to raise approximately $1 billion from investors - which includes China's Didi Chuxing. The company expects to complete $600 million of that fundraising this week, a source told the Journal.

Now that Uber's prolonged battle with Didi has come to a close, the company is likely shifting its focus to other regions like Southeast Asia and India, where Grab and India's Ola are king. A report from Bloomberg claimed that Uber is said to be pouring more resources into Southeast Asia, redeploying 150 engineers from its China team to other markets like Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Grab CEO Anthony Tan expects a fight between his company and Uber, writing in a company memo last week: "With the deal in China, we expect Uber to turn more attention and divert resources to our region. But we have seen that when the local champion stays true to their beliefs and strengths, they can prevail. We see this happening in China, and it will be the same here. They've lost once, and we will make them lose again."

Grab is valued around $1.6 billion after completing its last funding round in August 2015.