At a time when trust, transparency, and fairness are increasingly demanded from digital platforms, inDrive — the global mobility and urban services platform — took centre stage at Founder’s Friday in Abuja to engage in dialogue with Nigeria’s growing innovation ecosystem.
The event, which draws over 4,000 startup founders, tech professionals, and changemakers monthly, served as a dynamic space for the company to listen, learn, and collaborate on reimagining mobility in Africa.
Unlike traditional appearances focused on pitching services, inDrive’s participation emphasised community engagement and the value of co-creating solutions. The company’s representatives — including Nigeria Country Representative, Timothy Oladimeji — joined panel discussions, interacted with local entrepreneurs, and conducted live feedback sessions aimed at deepening its understanding of user needs in an ever-evolving urban environment.
Oladimeji said: ‘Founder’s Friday wasn’t just a platform for visibility — it was a platform for connection. We didn’t come to talk to people. We came to listen. Because fairness in mobility can’t be imposed from the top — it has to be built alongside those who use and power the platform every day’.
Challenging the norm: Why mobility needs a new playbook
Across Africa, ride-hailing has become essential to daily life — connecting people to work, education, healthcare, and social opportunities. But the sector has long operated within models that limit user choice, apply high commission fees, and rely heavily on algorithmic fare structures that can obscure pricing and reduce trust. inDrive offers a distinct approach: allowing riders and drivers to negotiate fares directly. This fare-bidding model, once seen as unconventional, is gaining attention for its ability to restore user agency, reflect local economic dynamics, and introduce transparency into the ride-hailing transaction.
Oladimeji noted: ‘There’s a growing shift from algorithmic control to human negotiation. It’s about dignity and choice — two things that shouldn’t be rare in mobility services’.
Fair earnings, not flashy incentives
Another theme that emerged during Founder’s Friday was the increasing importance of sustainable driver earnings. While many platforms operate on commission rates as high as 25–30%, inDrive caps its commission at 9.99% in monetized cities. This enables drivers to earn more while keeping ride costs competitive for passengers — without the need for complex incentive structures that can create financial uncertainty.
Safety through transparency and empowerment
inDrive’s user-centric model also extends to safety. Beyond features like real-time trip tracking and SOS buttons, the platform empowers users with visibility and choice: passengers receive multiple driver offers and can select based on rating, vehicle type, estimated arrival time, and user feedback. This transforms safety from a passive feature into an active decision-making process.
Co-creating the future of African mobility
As Africa’s cities grow and mobility needs become more complex, inDrive is looking beyond ride-hailing. The platform has already expanded into courier and freight services in parts of the continent, and sees itself evolving toward a broader super-app offering — one that connects people not just to transport, but to opportunity.
The company’s participation in Founder’s Friday underscored a core belief: that the future of mobility will be shaped by the people who use it. Through local partnerships, active community engagement, and ongoing feedback loops, inDrive is committed to developing solutions that are not only tech-driven, but also locally relevant and socially inclusive.
inDrive is a global mobility and urban services platform. The inDrive app has been downloaded over 240 million times, and was the second most downloaded mobility app in 2022 and 2023. In addition to ride-hailing, inDrive provides an expanding list of urban services, including intercity transportation and delivery. In 2023, inDrive launched New Ventures, a venture and M&A arm.
It operates in 888 cities in 48 countries. Driven by its mission of challenging social injustice, the company is committed to having a positive impact on the lives of one billion people by 2030. It pursues this goal both through its core business, which supports local communities via a fair pricing model; and through the work of inVision, its non-profit arm. inVision’s community empowerment programs help to advance education, sports, arts and sciences, gender equality and other vital initiatives.
