InDrive, a ride-hailing company that was founded on a bargaining model, is aiming to be a global super app — but not launching from a megacity, or anywhere near it: from Kazakhstan. The company is heaping on high-frequency services like grocery delivery to its marketplace for price-sensitive users in frontier markets, a bet that others have found difficult to execute at scale.
The strategy rides on a large pre-existing footprint: inDrive says it is already operating in 982 cities across 48 countries and has achieved more than 360 million downloads and 6.5 billion transactions of its app. Industry trackers including data. ai have considered as the second most downloaded ride-hailing app in the world since 2022, after Uber — a position that gives it both clout and brand recognition as it introduces new services.
Why this super app push could stick
Unlike the typical ride-hailing apps, inDrive reinforced its “name-your-price” flow, training users to engage often and play around with price offers. That playbook easily translates to staples like groceries and courier services where frequency — rather than luxury — dictates retention. The company says its delivery arm delivered more than 41 million orders last year and more than 14 million in a single recent quarter – momentum it wants to put behind groceries, an even more habitual category.
Early pilots in Kazakhstan indicate sticky behavior: inDrive reports that folks there use the app five times a month on average, with a reported net promoter score of 83%. The service includes more than 5,000 SKUs and a 15-minute delivery guarantee, which is enabled through its burgeoning network of dark stores, which the company claims grew by nearly 30% within weeks of launch. The positioning is unapologetically value-first — executives describe the aspiration as becoming the “Aldi of online groceries.’’
If the math works, the synergy makes sense: a large, cost-sensitive ride-hailing audience feeds a grocery and delivery funnel; more frequent ordering makes for stronger cohort retention and spreads acquisition costs across categories; and couriers can be cross utilized to even out demand peaks. That’s the super app flywheel as it’s supposed to turn.
Why Kazakhstan is the epicenter
Kazakhstan might seem an obscure test ground until you take a closer look at the data. A recent Dealroom analysis, produced in partnership with the government-backed Astana Hub, pointed to strong digital growth, estimating that the value of the country’s tech ecosystem is about $26 billion, 18 times the figure in 2019, while noting strong scaling locally for inDrive. Cities such as Almaty and Astana present dense catchments, increasing purchasing power, and a rapidly digitizing retail environment.
There are competitors already in grocery delivery, but inDrive is betting that speed and rock-bottom pricing will unlock a larger addressable market than convenience alone. The company plans to take the model to Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Peru and Mexico next — all places where costs of logistics have become a barrier, but where a price-led platform can scale quickly when it nails density.
What history tells us about super apps
Global precedent is mixed. WeChat, Meituan and Alipay in China and players like Gojek and Grab in Southeast Asia showed the power of bundling mobility, payments and commerce. Others, like Western social platforms as well as various ride-hailing companies, have had a difficult time getting the cross sell economics to work or changing users’ behaviors inside one app. In the Middle East, Careem’s super app push under new ownership provides a regional counterexample that execution is as important as ambition.
Flameouts in quick commerce are a cautionary tale. Getir laid off workers, Gorillas got acquired, and various startups exited markets, as 15-minute delivery has proven brutal on unit economics. (Enter inDrive, with its twist to even serve frontier markets and to use idle liquidity in rides and courier jobs possibly reducing the cost of acquiring a customer and idle time for a courier. Complementary payment rails might be helpful: as GSMA’s most recent industry report argues, with over a billion registered mobile money accounts around the world processing upwards of a trillion dollars a year, it’s clear that there are maturing, cash-light ecosystems in the very markets inDrive targets.
Competitive calculus: price versus polish
Uber has expanded its own platform with food, groceries and retail through partnerships in some countries; it even piloted a rider bidding feature similar to inDrive’s, in India. Local incumbents like Ola and Rapido in India and Rappi and iFood in Latin America already have significant customer habits. inDrive contends that it’s tapping into a thriftier lot that has been overshadowed by pricing that skews premium, and on which a few bucks saved in every trip or every basket dramatically changes behavior.
The company has also signaled its willingness to adapt locally: it trialed daily driver payouts, variable take rates and freight models, has invested in Pakistan’s Krave Mart to build grocery capabilities and bet on Pakistan as a category leader when a major competitor exited the market. That nimbleness — city-specific services and partnerships where it lacks expertise — could be crucial as it layers in micromobility and public transit integrations.
Risks, unit economics and the road ahead
Super apps succeed on frequency but fail on margin. Dark stores have inventory risk and capex; 15-minute SLAs don’t wait for you to checkout or when it’s raining, or when you live in crowded cities; and all the safety, trust, and customer support has to scale with the number of orders. inDrive says it’s putting money into safety training and service reliability, admitting that, in markets where word-of-mouth adoption reigns, perception is just as important as price.
Key metrics of success to watch: Basket sizes and repeat rates in groceries, courier utilization across dayparts, time-to-density as they launch new markets and whether or not inDrive can sustain fast delivery while being meaningfully cheaper than rivals. If the company can transform its bargainer’s DNA into a lasting, value-first marketplace that caters to everyday needs, perhaps it will succeed where others with deeper pockets failed.
