How MENA ride-hailing brands are emerging as local leaders with scalable digital infrastructure

By Gn Focus Report

As ride-hailing services are actively reshaping transportation across the MENA region, Onde allows local operators to compete with global giants.Can local ride-hailing startups really take on Uber in the Middle East? Onde proves they can – and shows how.Founded over a decade ago, Onde evolved into a trusted infrastructure partner for ride-hailing and delivery businesses. The company’s decision to enter the Middle East market in 2017 was based on several factors making the region highly potential: its growing digital penetration, underserved mobility infrastructure in secondary cities, and demand for culturally-adapted technology solutions.“Many global ride-hailing apps underestimated how differently this region functions,” said Eugene Suslo, СEO at Onde. “While most of them focused on capital big cities and copied strategies from the US and Europe, we successfully listened to local entrepreneurs and gave them flexibility to build locally-adapted products in smaller cities”.Onde’s clients include rising regional players in Saudi Arabia and Oman, some of whom grew from local startups into top-three national ride-hailing platforms. .One tangible example is Kaiian, a company launched by a former Uber driver. Kaiian scaled its operation from 30 cities up to 60, eventually turning into the leading ride-hailing app in the region.Later the team launched a second service, Wsslini, dedicated exclusively to female drivers and passengers – a culturally aligned response to Saudi Arabia’s lifting of the ban on women drivers.Another example is OTaxi – a fast-scaling partner that quickly became the market leader and was later acquired by an international conglomerate. With Onde, OTaxi has grown its number of orders from a few thousand to millions of yearly orders, monthly processing over 300k orders.“We helped them implement advanced analytics, marketing automation, and operational dashboards,” Eugene explained. “We see our value in more than just providing well-working software – it’s in how we help our partner grow and overcome issues as a team.”One of the key differentiators for Onde is its white-label model. Many entrepreneurs prefer to operate under their own branding, often receiving local subsidies or government support. Onde allows this by providing flexible APIs, rapid deployment (which usually takes 3-5 weeks), and region-specific UX/UI adjustments, including full RTL (right-to-left) language support.The team also highlights real-time performance monitoring features. Onde built custom alert systems for Oman and Saudi Arabia markets. It continuously monitors and notifies operators of key changes, like order surges or drops in driver availability. This helps clients take immediate action – whether it’s scaling resources, adjusting marketing campaigns, or analyzing positive spikes for scalability. “It’s not enough to fix problems when something goes wrong,” Eugene mentioned. “The most successful clients we work with also study what works exceptionally well – so they can replicate and scale it.”Both driver’s and passenger’s safety has also become a major trend in recent years. So Onde actively invests in security-focused features, including driver verification, in-app SOS buttons, driver face recognition during the ride, along with checking driver’s condition. These features are particularly important in markets with gender-sensitive transportation and personal safety being main concerns.In response to evolving user preferences and behavior, Onde.app has also enabled clients to launch “super apps”. Those combine ride-hailing with food and item delivery in a single interface.“In markets like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, people seek centralized, multifunctional apps. It’s about convenience and user familiarity, no one wants to switch between apps when it could be done within one,” Eugene said.With headquarters in Estonia and a growing presence in Dubai through its regional entity Onde Middle East, the company is now deepening its ties with local stakeholders. A 2023 regional partner conference held in Dubai further underscored Onde’s commitment to knowledge-sharing and co-growth.As MENA markets continue to digitize and diversify, Onde positions itself not just as a software vendor, but as a growth partner for mobility entrepreneurs.“Our goal is to give local businesses a fighting chance to become the next regional success story,” said Eugene. “And that means giving them world-class tools – fast.”

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