Welcome to Money 2020 Middle East.
We're here at the Riyadh exhibition and Convention Center.
One of the most fun things about this job is learning about all the different companies that are represented here.
We're gonna learn a little bit more about In Drive.
I'm joined right now by Abdul Rahman Basillo, the country manager for Saudi Arabia for In Drive.
Yes.
Well, uh, well thank you first of all for the introduction and uh I'm glad that uh we're hosting such events in Saudi Arabia to meet uh such people as you, so thank you.
Yes, it's been really fun just learning about all these different companies.
So we want to hear some more about NDrive, especially since you recently launched in Saudi Arabia.
Right, so, uh, Inrive is a ride hailing company uh uh that is a globally uh.
Uh, distributed, uh, we are in 48 countries, uh, and, uh, now we are entering Saudi Arabia as the 49th country.
So, um, what Andro is, is, uh, it's a peer to peer service.
Uh, what we have done for the sector is that we have, uh, innovated it a little bit, so, uh.
The customer can actually order the driver and can choose the driver and they can also um have the freedom of uh the pricing range uh that they can pick so uh when the customer uh chooses the ride they can.
Use the pricing and based on it, it will go to the captains and then the captains can have three choices either to cancel it or not accept it or they can accept it and the last choice they can negotiate with it.
Oh, you can negotiate.
That's different.
How does that work and how does that power of choice impacted your company and its customers.
Yeah, so we, uh, understood once we have launched this idea is that it's really popular and we thought it's gonna be uh popular for like uh certain regions, right?
But funny enough, we are in 48 countries and all of them say the same.
Like people love to haggle prices and negotiate.
So for me in the beginning I thought it's going to be excellent for Saudi Arabia customer base, but obviously it's working for the whole network, so that's great.
That is great.
So, you know, with um Fintech these days, mobility is key, right?
How are you approaching that integration?
Right, uh, so, uh, for Saudi Arabia, uh, actually we have empowered the fintech side of the business, uh, we have started with the cashless payments only and uh we have seen uh promising results uh that uh is encouraging other markets, so, um.
Uh, we have integrated the cashless, uh, since the beginning, uh, when we started Jedda, uh, and let me just say, uh, some, uh, flash news, uh, we are actually, uh, launching uh Riyadh, uh, during the, uh, Saudi National Day, which is gonna be September 23rd.
Uh, so what we have noticed is that, uh, a lot of people here are using cashless payments and that's where the Fentech site comes in.
Uh, and, uh, now we have mastered it for Saudi market and uh hopefully we can expand it to many other markets with uh this much aggressiveness, basically, uh, so yeah.
And you'll be on the the ride hen, how also are you contributing to the local economy?
OK, so, uh, what we are doing directly is we are hiring thousands of captains across Saudi Arabia, especially for the two markets that we have, the two cities that we have, which is Riyadh and Jeddah, and this by itself is giving back to the community and the economy because the captains are able to take less commission.
So our commission is the lowest in the market compared to other competition.
Uh, which enabled the captains to support their family, hence paying back with to the local economy, basically, so that's one thing.
And also for the customer base, our price range is pretty much affordable, so that means that they can save more money and they can invest invest back to the local.
So what's next for Andra?
What's coming down the road, so to speak?
So uh we are focusing now on how to perfect our launches.
So as you, as I mentioned, we are in Jedda Riyadh and uh since we are just entering Riyadh, uh we will be developing a lot of things that are really exciting and uh we will be expanding to the Saudi market for the 2nd and 3rd tier.
Uh, cities, but we don't have a specific timing as of now, but it's definitely uh on plan.
Another thing we are focusing on is the social responsibilities so we're, we're in constant constant talks with the government entities to have some uh uh non-profitable uh like initiatives basically.
So uh that's really exciting time for in Saudi Arabia.
Yeah, it seems to be an exciting time for the region.
It is, it is.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it.
