inDrive: Beyond Rides – A Deep Dive into New Bets in Ads & Groceries
inDrive, initially known for its innovative, bidding-based ride-hailing service, is aggressively expanding its horizons. The company is strategically diversifying beyond transportation by launching advertising across its top 20 markets and significantly scaling grocery delivery in Pakistan. This ambitious move is part of a broader “super app” strategy, first outlined last year, designed to cultivate new revenue streams, enhance user engagement, and sustain growth, particularly in price-sensitive markets. This expansion isn't just about adding features; it's a calculated response to the evolving landscape of the ride-hailing industry and a proactive approach to long-term sustainability.
The Shifting Ride-Hailing Landscape & The Rise of Super Apps
Ride-hailing platforms are facing increasingly intense competition and shrinking profit margins, especially in emerging markets. This pressure is forcing companies to explore alternative revenue sources beyond simply connecting riders and drivers. Advertising presents a high-margin opportunity that naturally scales with user base, while grocery delivery increases app usage frequency – a crucial metric for engagement and retention. inDrive’s strategy aims to lessen its dependence on ride commissions and simultaneously reinforce its core mobility business.
inDrive’s success has been built on affordability, leveraging a peer-to-peer negotiation model that empowers riders and drivers to agree on fares directly, bypassing fixed pricing structures. However, operating in a crowded market alongside giants like Uber and numerous local transportation options necessitates a broader approach. This realization fueled the development of inDrive’s “super app” strategy, focused on integrating high-frequency services like grocery delivery in frontier and emerging markets.
Advertising Rollout: A Multi-Market Approach
The advertising initiative is currently being deployed across key markets including Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt, and Morocco. This rollout follows successful mid-2025 tests that generated hundreds of millions of impressions and attracted interest from major global consumer brands and financial institutions, according to Andries Smit, inDrive’s Chief Growth Business Officer, in a recent interview with GearTech.
Initially, the advertising business will concentrate on in-app placements. These placements will strategically appear during high-engagement moments, such as the waiting period after a ride is booked and while passengers are in transit, maximizing attention and impact. Smit explained to GearTech that these moments offer sustained user attention, making them ideal for advertising.
Future Advertising Plans: In-Car & Beyond
While in-car and on-vehicle advertising are on the long-term roadmap, inDrive plans to prioritize in-app formats through 2026. Smit cited the operational complexities of managing on-car advertising in emerging markets and the stronger initial returns from digital placements as key factors in this decision. This phased approach allows inDrive to refine its advertising strategy and optimize performance before expanding into more challenging areas.
Pakistan: A Key Market for inDrive’s Super App Vision
The focus on in-app advertising is strategically aligned with inDrive’s expansion into groceries, a higher-frequency service expected to drive stronger engagement and advertising demand than ride-hailing alone. inDrive is rapidly scaling grocery delivery in Pakistan, its second market after Kazakhstan, through a strategic partnership with local dark-store operator Krave Mart, in which inDrive invested in December 2024.
Pakistan presents a particularly compelling opportunity due to the growing demand for quick commerce and inDrive’s established scale within the market. The grocery retail sector remains largely fragmented and informal, while urban consumers are increasingly adopting app-based delivery services to accommodate busy lifestyles. Furthermore, inDrive has emerged as a leading mobility platform in Pakistan, providing a large and engaged user base for cross-selling grocery services without incurring substantial customer acquisition costs – a common challenge for many quick-commerce startups.
Growth Metrics in Pakistan: A Promising Trajectory
Since launching in 2021, inDrive has consistently expanded its presence in Pakistan. Ride volumes increased by nearly 40% year-over-year in 2025, while deliveries through its courier services surged by 67% in the first half of the year, according to company data shared with GearTech. The company identifies Pakistan as one of its fastest-growing markets globally, with particularly high usage in major cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. Currently, inDrive operates ride-hailing services in over 20 Pakistani cities and intercity services across more than 200 locations.
The grocery rollout in Pakistan will begin in Karachi, the country’s largest city and a key market for inDrive. Users will be able to order daily essentials through the app with delivery times of approximately 20 to 30 minutes. The service will subsequently expand to other major cities, including Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, later in the year as inDrive strengthens its supply chain and logistics capabilities with Krave Mart. The platform intends to offer over 7,500 products – encompassing fresh produce, meat and dairy, snacks, and household items – alongside free delivery on orders exceeding PKR 499 (approximately $2) with no service fees.
Investment & Capital Deployment in Pakistan
Beyond its rapid growth as a ride-hailing market, Pakistan has become a focal point for inDrive’s capital investment. Of the company’s $100 million multi-year investment program announced in late 2023, Smit revealed that the largest portion has been allocated to Pakistan, although he refrained from disclosing specific figures. He added that at least half of the overall $100 million commitment has already been deployed.
“We’re seeing incredible potential in Pakistan,” Smit stated. “Our goal is to continue and double down on investments as we observe positive performance.”
Navigating Investor Caution in Pakistan
inDrive’s increased focus on Pakistan occurs amidst broader investor hesitancy towards the market. Venture capital and public investors have largely remained cautious due to geopolitical and macroeconomic risks, even as economic activity shows signs of recovery. Equity funding in Pakistan rose 63% year-over-year in 2025 to $36.6 million across 10 rounds, according to a recent report by Karachi-based startup analyst firm Data Darbar – a significant decrease compared to the $347 million and $331 million raised in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
However, inDrive views the disparity between investor caution and on-the-ground demand as a significant opportunity. Having operated across numerous emerging markets, Smit emphasized that the company is more accustomed to volatility and less reliant on fluctuating capital market sentiment. This resilience allows inDrive to invest confidently where others hesitate. With an established local presence and a large active user base, inDrive can also facilitate partner scaling without incurring heavy customer acquisition costs – a particularly valuable advantage in an environment where external funding is limited.
Scale & Future Outlook
inDrive’s expansion into advertising and commerce is underpinned by its impressive scale. The company operates in 1,065 cities across 48 countries and has surpassed 360 million app downloads, solidifying its position as the world’s second most-downloaded mobility app for the third consecutive year, trailing only Uber, according to company data.
Looking ahead, inDrive anticipates that advertising will become a more substantial revenue contributor over the medium term, particularly as grocery and delivery volumes increase, creating more opportunities for contextual promotions. Ride-hailing, which previously accounted for approximately 95% of inDrive’s revenue, now represents closer to 85%, even as the core business continues to grow. This shift reflects the successful scaling of newer verticals.
Groceries, delivery, advertising, and eventually, financial services are projected to play an increasingly prominent role over the next three to five years as the company selectively expands across priority markets, Smit concluded. inDrive’s strategy is a testament to the power of diversification and a commitment to building a truly comprehensive “super app” experience for its users.