MANILA - Southeast Asian ride-hailing and payments firm Grab announced on Tuesday that is laying off 360 employees, or under 5 percent of its workforce as the COVID-19 crisis saps demand.

In a note to employees, Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan said that the pandemic will likely result in a prolonged recession and that the company needed to "prepare for what may be a long recovery period."

Tan said that the company has already cut back on discretionary spending, and implemented pay cuts for senior management, but still needed to get leaner "in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy."

"To achieve this, we will be sunsetting some non-core projects, consolidating functions for greater efficiency, and right-sizing teams to better match our changing business needs given the external environment," Tan said.

Grab, whose headquarters are in Singapore, is Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup. It was last valued at $14 billion and is backed by Japan's SoftBank Group.

SoftBank's profits plunged 99 percent last year. - With reports from Reuters