inDrive was founded in Yakutsk, Russia. The service began as inDriver in the Siberian city, where extreme winter conditions and sharply rising taxi prices inspired a more flexible way for passengers and drivers to arrange rides.
In 2012, local students created a social-media group called “Independent Drivers.” Passengers posted their destinations and proposed fares, while drivers could respond directly and negotiate. Entrepreneur Arsen Tomsky recognized the potential of this peer-to-peer model, and the service moved to the Sinet company before being officially launched in 2013.
Yakutsk is often described as one of the coldest major cities in the world, making the original problem especially memorable: demand for taxis surged when temperatures plunged. Unlike conventional ride-hailing systems that calculate a fixed price, inDrive built its identity around passenger-driver agreement.
The company changed its name from inDriver to inDrive in 2022 as it expanded beyond urban rides into intercity travel, delivery, cargo transportation, and other services. Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, and Moscow are important Russian cities, but none is the service’s founding city.