Arsen Tomsky, CEO and founder of inDrive, an international ride-hailing service that operates in 40 countries, has become a Kazakhstani citizen, the company said in a statement.
What happened? Arsen Tomsky has obtained Kazakhstani nationality and thanked the country’s government for their trust.
«I have obtained Kazakhstani nationality. I want to express my gratitude to the country’s leadership for their trust and invitation to come to Kazakhstan. I also want to say thank you to all of Kazakhstan and its people for becoming the second home for inDrive,» Tomsky said during the Alternativa Film Awards.
He also thanked Digital Minister Bagdat Musin for supporting inDrive.
«I’ve been living and working outside Russia since 2018. In 2022, we stopped working in Russia and relocated all our personnel, mostly to Kazakhstan. That wasn’t a spontaneous decision. Kazakhstan was the first foreign state where inDrive started the expansion of its international business. My first visit here was in 2014 and since then I have liked the people of Kazakhstan for their hospitality, optimism, energy and talent,» Tomsky noted.
According to the businessman, inDrive has created more than 1,000 jobs within the country; it pays good salaries and taxes and brings all the money it earns in more than 40 countries all over the globe to Kazakhstan’s economy.
«We believe that any country needs a diversified passenger market to avoid a monopoly. That is why it is so important for Kazakhstan to have its own passenger IT service that was designed for Kazakhstanis. This service is inDriver. In conclusion, I want to say that we are going to make everything possible to improve people’s lives everywhere around the globe with a focus on Yakutia and Kazakhstan,» he underlined.
What do we know about inDriver? The company was established in Yakutia, Russia. In 2022, the service left Russia and relocated almost all its personnel to Kazakhstan.
In 2021, inDrive became a unicorn when its market value was estimated at $1.2 billion. At the time, the company raised $150 million. According to the company’s CFO Dmitry Sedov, that money was raised with the help of an unusual debt instrument that links paying off a debt with the financial results of the business. Since then, the company’s revenue has risen fourfold, Sedov told Bloomberg.
The context. According to Kazakhstan’s legislation, the naturalization process for citizens of Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan is significantly simplified. However, the simplified procedure can be applied only to those who used to be Soviet citizens or lived in Kazakhstan before December 21, 1991. Those Russian, Belarusian and Kyrgyzstani citizens who have relatives in Kazakhstan can also apply for citizenship in a simplified way.
In all other cases, foreigners have to apply for citizenship as usual.
