InDrive, a company widely recognized for introducing a unique bidding-based ride-hailing model that has gained substantial traction across diverse regions of Asia and Latin America, is now embarking on an ambitious new chapter in its growth trajectory. The firm is unveiling a comprehensive “super-app” strategy designed specifically for emerging and frontier markets, with the goal of evolving far beyond its core cab-hailing service into a multipurpose platform that can deliver daily essentials and cater to a broad spectrum of consumer needs. This repositioning demonstrates the company’s determination to transition from a single-vertical transportation provider into an indispensable everyday utility for its users.
The strategic shift begins in Kazakhstan, where InDrive has launched its grocery delivery initiative as its inaugural step into ancillary services. Over the course of the next twelve months, the company intends to expand these offerings across several of its most critical markets, which include Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Peru, and Mexico. This plan comes at a moment when InDrive has already achieved notable global milestones, surpassing 360 million cumulative downloads and registering approximately 6.5 billion transactions worldwide. The result of this momentum has firmly established InDrive as the world’s second most-downloaded ride-hailing application, consistently ranking behind only Uber since 2022.
As Andries Smit, the company’s Chief Growth Business Officer, explained in a recent interview, the rationale behind broadening into non-transport verticals is straightforward: by offering a wider array of services, InDrive increases the frequency of customer engagement, which in turn results in longer-term loyalty and higher value within its ecosystem. For a platform predicated on consumer participation, deepening user reliance elevates both retention and satisfaction.
In choosing grocery delivery as its first new service category, InDrive responded to rapid momentum within its existing delivery operations. In 2024 alone, the company successfully completed more than 41 million delivery orders on a global scale, and in the second quarter of 2025 added over 14 million more—figures that highlight how swiftly this segment is scaling within the business. In Kazakhstan, the pilot program has been structured around a 15-minute delivery promise and provides consumers with access to an expansive catalog of more than 5,000 products. Early indicators of performance have been strong: pilot projects in the Central Asian market produced a remarkable net promoter score of 83%, signifying exceptionally high customer approval, paired with an average of five grocery purchases per user per month.
To support these operations, InDrive has implemented a “dark store” model in Kazakhstan—a system where goods are kept in small fulfillment centers designed exclusively for online orders. According to Smit, the majority of the inventory revolves around ready-to-eat meals, with approximately ten percent dedicated to fresh produce. This assortment is deliberately curated to encourage repeat purchase behavior and enhance long-term customer retention. At the same time, the company remains flexible in its strategy when examining other regions. In markets characterized by dense networks of local, independently run shops, InDrive is considering forging partnerships with mom-and-pop stores, tailoring its model to suit local retail environments. Without disclosing exact figures, Smit confirmed that InDrive has expanded its dark store footprint in Kazakhstan by 30% since August, underscoring its serious commitment to scaling the initiative.
The decision to select Kazakhstan as the pioneer market for its super-app expansion was not incidental. InDrive currently operates in 982 cities spanning 48 countries, and notably, it ranks as a market leader in eight of these locales. However, the company identified Kazakhstan as uniquely positioned due to a pronounced surge in digital adoption among its population, coinciding with the country’s status as Central Asia’s largest economy. Moreover, InDrive maintains its largest workforce in Kazakhstan, utilizing the nation as a central hub for both research and development as well as day-to-day operations. This organizational alignment makes Kazakhstan a natural choice to serve as the launchpad for a broader strategic transition.
Supporting this perspective, a recent Dealroom report produced in collaboration with Astana Hub—a government-backed technology park—documented a striking 44% growth in InDrive’s business activity within Kazakhstan over the previous 12 months. More broadly, the report assessed the overall value of the country’s technology ecosystem at $26 billion, a remarkable eighteenfold increase since 2019. This exponential growth underscores the dynamism of Kazakhstan’s digital economy, reflected in heightened startup activity, increased access to funding, and a general proliferation of service-oriented innovations.
Although Kazakhstan already hosts several applications catering to the grocery delivery segment, InDrive intends to distinguish itself primarily through the affordability of its offerings. Smit noted that the company views its positioning akin to the low-cost retail model of Aldi, transposed into an online environment. The strategy seeks to address both economic disparities and access challenges that consumers in certain regions face. Many cost-conscious individuals, as Smit emphasized, often settle for suboptimal purchasing decisions because more suitable alternatives remain financially or geographically inaccessible. InDrive hopes to bridge this gap by democratizing access to essential goods at competitive prices.
While the concept of a super-app has been attempted by numerous global technology companies in recent years, the outcomes have been mixed. Platforms such as WeChat in China and Gojek in Southeast Asia stand as prime examples of successful executions, whereas other major players—including Meta—have not been able to replicate such traction. Drawing from his own experience working with WeChat in 2016, Smit articulated confidence that InDrive can craft a model that leverages best practices while adapting them to new markets. He further emphasized that the company sees advanced artificial intelligence as a critical enabler of this success, with AI-powered personalization expected to tailor user experiences. Equally important, InDrive aims to employ AI in ways that enhance accessibility, facilitating use by individuals with disabilities or limited literacy, ensuring inclusivity in its expansion.
Financially, InDrive has also equipped itself for this transformative journey. In November 2023, the company announced the establishment of a venture investment and mergers-and-acquisitions arm, earmarking up to $100 million over several years to diversify its operations. Smit revealed that approximately 30% of this fund has already been allocated specifically toward building the foundation of its super-app initiative. As part of these efforts, InDrive invested in Pakistan’s grocery platform Krave Mart in December, although the rollout timeline for incorporating groceries into the InDrive application in Pakistan remains undefined.
Competition is unavoidable, particularly from Uber, which has also expanded its service portfolio to include food delivery through Uber Eats. Yet Smit underscored that InDrive targets a distinct consumer demographic—one fundamentally oriented around value consciousness, which Uber only partially overlaps with. By catering deliberately to this audience, InDrive positions itself as a more inclusive, affordable alternative in frontier markets.
India exemplifies one of the more complex challenges in InDrive’s global strategy. Despite its presence in the South Asian country, where it competes with incumbents like Uber and domestic providers such as Ola and Rapido, the company has struggled to gain meaningful momentum. In fact, Uber even experimented with piloting InDrive’s bidding-based approach in the Indian market, highlighting its appeal. Nevertheless, exclusive data obtained by TechCrunch shows that InDrive’s downloads in India declined by 22.6% year-on-year in 2025, whereas Uber and competing Indian platforms experienced substantial growth. Rapido, for example, achieved the fastest expansion with an 80.9% increase in downloads.
In describing the Indian market, Smit referred to it as a “puzzle,” emphasizing that while the country continues to grow rapidly, InDrive has chosen to concentrate its efforts on specific urban centers rather than attempting to penetrate the market broadly. Trials in different business verticals, particularly in freight transport, are ongoing. A hallmark of InDrive’s ride-hailing system is its flexible bidding model, including innovative payment systems that allow drivers to receive earnings daily and adapt commission structures as needed.
Not all challenges in India stem from market share alone. Interviews with several riders and drivers revealed concerns around safety and misuse of the bidding mechanism. Some users reported that the bidding process enabled exploitative behavior, occasionally involving fraudulent riders or rival drivers engaging in aggressive bargaining to undermine peers. In acknowledgment of these criticisms, Smit stressed that InDrive places safety and customer trust at the forefront, committing to intensified efforts in driver and passenger education as well as perception management in order to rectify these issues.
Looking ahead, InDrive envisions broadening its super-app platform with new service layers tailored to regional needs. Financial services are a key area under exploration. In certain markets like Brazil and Mexico, the application already offers micro-loans to drivers—an initiative that the company hopes to extend to passengers and potentially to small delivery businesses. Another service under consideration is micro-mobility, which would enable users to connect seamlessly with local enterprises and public transit networks. As Smit articulated, the approach is city-specific, designed to provide a curated bouquet of critical verticals that align closely with InDrive’s core capabilities. For areas in which the company lacks operational expertise, the strategy will be to partner with established, reliable local players.
Through these deliberate expansions and the integration of diversified services, InDrive seeks not merely to emulate prior attempts at super-app models, but to create a distinctive, accessible, and cost-effective ecosystem that reflects the realities and aspirations of its frontier-market consumers.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/08/indrive-has-big-plans-to-become-a-global-super-app-where-others-have-failed/
