inDrive ride-hailing expansion is reshaping how the Uber rival approaches its business. Known for letting riders and drivers negotiate fares, the Mountain View, California-based company spent the past year adding advertising, groceries, and financial services to its core ride-hailing service. Now it is scaling those bets, installing new leaders as its ads, delivery, and financial-services businesses show early signs of traction across its largely emerging-market user base.
The company operates in over 1,200 cities across 48 countries. Its latest moves reflect a broader playbook among ride-hailing firms: use a large base of riders and drivers to build revenue streams beyond the thin economics of matching passengers with cars.
Advertising Business Reaches 25 Markets
Piloted in July 2025 and rolled out to its top 20 markets in January, inDrive’s advertising business has since expanded to 25 markets. It now serves more than 2 billion impressions and attracts over 2,000 paying advertisers a month, the company told TechCrunch. About two-thirds of those advertisers are repeat customers.
Andries Smit, inDrive’s chief growth business officer, said the company sees an opportunity to build an advertising business around an audience that can be harder for brands to reach through other platforms.
“We’re in very clear emerging markets. Our segment is very different, and we can really help brands connect with a new audience in a different way,” Smit told TechCrunch in an interview.
inDrive is now pushing what it calls “Ride Media,” designed to capture passengers’ attention while they wait for a driver and during a trip. The company can currently target users based on places they have visited over a specified period, though it plans to add real-time targeting capabilities.
Cross-Selling Gains Early Momentum
There are early signs that the inDrive ride-hailing expansion is getting users to venture beyond rides. The company said 13% of its monthly transacting users used both mobility and at least one delivery service in 2025, as it looks to cross-sell services to customers already using its core ride-hailing business.
The number of loans taken out by drivers through inDrive.money in Latin America also jumped 118% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, the company told TechCrunch. The service, which offers short-term credit to drivers, is available in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Smit declined to disclose how much capital inDrive has earmarked for its newer businesses in general. However, he said advertising, financial services, and delivery require relatively little funding to scale, while groceries and food will account for the bulk of its investment.
New Leaders Drive Delivery and Ads Growth
That investment could take inDrive deeper into another space long dominated by Uber and other delivery platforms. The company is testing prepared-food delivery with partners, according to a person familiar with the plans, though the effort remains in early stages. The company declined to share further details on the tests.
The food-delivery tests come as inDrive has hired Raphael Zennou, a former Delivery Hero executive, as vice president of food and groceries. The company has also brought former Google executive Max Silin to lead the ads business, called inDrive.Ads, and promoted Valentin Laykov to oversee its delivery business. Alexander Kurchin will continue to lead inDrive.money.
Zennou previously helped oversee quick-commerce operations serving 21 million monthly customers at Delivery Hero, while Silin spent more than 11 years at Google in roles spanning digital media, monetization, and programmatic advertising. These appointments bring experience in delivery and advertising, the two businesses that have become important extensions of larger consumer platforms.
Financial Impact Still Unclear
It is still unclear how financially significant these newer businesses are for inDrive. The company declined to disclose revenue from its advertising business or its share of overall revenue. Smit also would not say when he expects ads to become a material contributor to inDrive’s business.
The pace, Smit said, will depend not only on growing inDrive’s advertising inventory and advertiser base, but also on the expansion of businesses such as groceries and food, which can create more opportunities for advertising.
“You’ll see a nice multiplier effect,” he said.
Competing on a Different Playing Field
Uber has increasingly layered delivery, advertising, and other services onto its mobility network. inDrive is betting that its reach across emerging markets can give it a similar opportunity with a different, more cost-conscious customer base.
That distinction matters. Many inDrive users are in markets where brands struggle to reach audiences through traditional digital channels. Ride Media offers a way to capture attention during a captive moment, whether a passenger is waiting for a car or riding in one.
The inDrive ride-hailing expansion also leans on cross-selling rather than building every service from scratch. By attaching delivery and financial products to an existing ride-hailing habit, the company can grow revenue per user without acquiring entirely new customers.
What to Watch Next
Several open questions remain. The company has not said when advertising will become a material revenue contributor. It has not disclosed how much it is investing in groceries and food. And its prepared-food delivery tests are still in early stages.
What is clear is the direction. inDrive ride-hailing expansion is no longer just about matching riders with drivers. It is about turning a mobility app into a broader consumer platform for emerging markets, one where advertising, credit, and delivery reinforce the core ride-hailing business.
Whether that strategy delivers meaningful revenue is the next test. For now, the early numbers, from 2 billion ad impressions to a 118% jump in driver loans, suggest the company is making progress on its bet.
