inDrive is venturing beyond rides with a dual bet on in-app advertising and grocery delivery, an effort to boost margins, improve engagement and reduce reliance on trip commissions across its price-sensitive markets.
inDrive Launches In-App Ads in 20 Markets
After conducting pilots that generated hundreds of millions of impressions and interest from global consumer brands and regional banks, the company is tapping ad inventory across its leading markets — Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Morocco. The near-term emphasis is on in-app placements — formats that are easier to scale and measure, with in-car and on-vehicle options still lying somewhere down the road.
On-demand advertising is a natural bolt-on for high-intent marketplaces. It is monetizing demand already present with very little friction and can be optimized for moments of micro-intent: a rider seeking a ride for their commute, the shop owner refilling his essentials, the courier responding to an order. The category has proven itself — Uber has said its ad business surpassed a $1 billion annualized run rate — which gives inDrive, and riders and drivers on its platform, a clear benchmark for how ad revenue can scale along with usage without diluting core pricing.
The strategic logic is simple: higher-margin ads help defray the cost of affordability on rides, and context-aware promotions drive conversion on non-ride services. When done well, ad load remains respectful of the experience and the marketplace gets more value out of the same trip and delivery volume.
Grocery Push Anchored in Pakistan via Krave Mart JV
inDrive is expanding grocery delivery in Pakistan via a joint venture with local dark-store operator Krave Mart, in which the company has taken an investment. Karachi is the first, with a growth plan in Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi as supply side and logistics mature. Orders will be focused on 20 to 30 minute delivery windows, and will feature over 7,500 SKUs including fresh produce, meat & dairy, snacks and household items with free delivery on PKR 499+ orders and no service fees.
The Indian grocery space is still wholly unorganized and fragmented, but there is a clear shift among the urban population toward app-enabled convenience. That is a relatively low-cost cross-sell for inDrive, which already enjoys considerable mobility demand in the land. Instead of spending heavily to acquire users — as many quick-commerce start-ups did — its ride-hailing footprint becomes the funnel.
The company is part-way through a $100 million multi-year investment plan for Pakistan and says at least half of that money has already been spent.
It’s worth noting the timing: funding for local startups recently grew by 63 percent year over year to a total of $36.6 million in 10 rounds, according to analyst firm Data Darbar, though that is still well short of earlier cycle highs that exceeded $300 million. For inDrive, it is that chasm between capital discipline and consumer demand where operating scale and patience can multiply.
From Rides to a Super App: inDrive’s Expansion Strategy
inDrive’s brand promise was built around peer-to-peer fare negotiations, a model that has had traction in markets with cost-conscious consumers, while also putting it into more direct competition with taxis, autorickshaws and global incumbents. Expanding into groceries and ads takes a page from an evergreen regional playbook — think Careem’s super app in MENA or Grab and Gojek in Southeast Asia — but with a twist: inDrive is bolting on those services to a network that focuses on affordability and local customization.
Scale is the backbone. The company says it is in 1,065 cities across 48 countries and has crossed the mark of 360 million app downloads. Just a few years ago, rides generated ~95% of revenue; that figure is about 85% today — implying newer verticals are starting to matter even as mobility continues to expand.
If the flywheel turns, ads are worth more every transaction and groceries increase frequency and rides stay on the onramp. The result is more ad surface area with price flexibility that made the platform unique to begin with.
What to Watch Next in inDrive’s Ads and Grocery Push
This push will have three tests of execution.
- Ad yield versus experience: inDrive will have to demonstrate it can scale inventory without sacrificing trust or conversion.
- Grocery unit economics: dark-store partnerships will have to provide reliable fill rates and on-time performance for dense, traffic-attracting cities.
- Capital discipline: targeted investments in markets like Pakistan should lead to sustainable retention and cross-sell, not one-time spikes.
Details of regulation and operation matter, too. In-car advertising would raise permitting and safety concerns, while payments or possible future financial services would trigger compliance requirements. But if inDrive can keep the esoteric marketplace at its core humming while adding high-frequency commerce and high-margin advertising on top of it, then the company’s super app thesis is one that could have substantial long-term legs — particularly in markets that still prize affordability and utility rather than luxury.
