Andries Smit, Vice President of New Ventures at inDrive
Last year, inDrive—a global mobility and urban services platform operating across 46 countries—announced the launch of its new venture and merger and acquisition division, New Ventures. According to TechCrunch, the company aims to invest up to US$100 million in startups within emerging markets over the next few years.
New Ventures started with markets where inDrive already operates; so far, it primarily focuses on South and Central Asian countries. But in 2025, it plans to ramp up activities in Southeast Asia (SEA).
“We do not have strict targets that specify the number of startups we must invest in. Unlike a VC fund, we have the flexibility to take as much time as necessary to find the best ‘hidden gems’ in mobility-adjacent sectors across emerging markets,” writes Andries Smit, Vice President of New Ventures at inDrive, in an email to e27.
In the conversation, Smit explains in detail how the team’s experience with running inDrive helps them in this new endeavour. He also shares the company’s plan for SEA in 2025.
The following is an edited excerpt of the conversation.
What insights do you learn from your experience with inDrive that helped with the founding of this VC arm? What specific problem do you aim to tackle with New Ventures?
inDrive was launched by Arsen Tomsky and his team in Yakutia, the world’s coldest inhabited place, which is far away from Silicon Valley and top international financial hubs such as Hong Kong, Singapore, London or New York.
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As a company, we know firsthand how difficult it can be for the ‘underdog’ – a tech company coming from an unusual emerging market and not tapping into the established global tech and financing networks – to make it. inDrive was able to beat the odds to scale its bid-based ridesharing business and other urban services to 46 countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India and Pakistan.
We wanted to use what we had learned during our decade-long transformation from an underdog startup to a tech unicorn with the world’s second-most downloaded mobility app to help other promising startups in emerging and frontier markets.
That is why, at the end of last year, inDrive launched New Ventures, its own in-house VC arm, to find like-minded tech startups in sectors adjacent to mobility (e.g. food delivery, courier services). We have been scouting startups with the goal of helping them reach new heights, focusing on promising ‘underdogs’ whose operations are improving lives in their communities.
What is your investment philosophy? What are the criteria that you are looking for in a potential investment?
New Ventures plans to invest up to US$100 million over the next few years by making annual allocations from inDrive’s balance sheet. We will size the annual allocations based on the size of our pipeline of investment opportunities that meet our stringent growth and scalability criteria and resonate with our corporate super-mission to improve people’s lives.
Regarding the hidden emerging-markets gems, we primarily focus on like-minded post-seed/Series A-stage tech-enabled companies that can demonstrate substantial year-over-year growth exceeding 2-3x.
We look for healthy economics and cash flow in our investment targets, paying special attention to efficiency across loan-to-value, customer acquisition cost and retention metrics.
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What notable insights can you share regarding the SEA startup ecosystem, particularly as we get through the funding winter? How can startups build a sustainable business in this environment?
The SEA startup ecosystem holds great promise, but startups must prioritise sustainability and efficiency in the current funding crunch.
With US$72 billion invested between 2019 and 2023, markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia present strong opportunities. Yet, capital efficiency remains a challenge in the region.
Over 50 per cent of SEA households are value-focused, preferring affordable, essential services over premium options.
Overall, this aligns with inDrive’s core mission and business model to provide fair, affordable services to value-driven consumers, particularly in underserved communities. By focusing on value rather than solely convenience, startups can build sustainable models that resonate deeply with this significant consumer segment.
What major plan do you have for 2025? What opportunities do you aim to seize?
As we enter the last quarter of 2024, we are already planning for an exciting 2025, especially in emerging markets with positive demographic trends, rapidly growing economies, and tech-savvy populations. SEA, with its value-focused and fast-growing population of 670 million, presents incredible opportunities for New Ventures.
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Our mission for 2025 is to accelerate inDrive’s super-mission of improving the lives of at least one billion people by 2030. We plan to achieve this by expanding into these high-potential markets, leveraging mobile-first services that meet the rising demand for affordable, convenient solutions while addressing social inequality and empowering communities.
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Image Credit: inDrive
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