Ride-hailing platform Uber has elevated its Asia Pacific head Pradeep Parameswaran to a global role, where he would head business development for the company, in addition to leading its enterprise product and a new ‘fleets‘ programme team, ET has learnt.
Parameswaran, who formerly led Uber’s India operations, was promoted to the APAC role in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
According to people in the know, Parameswaran would also lead Uber’s newly created ‘fleets’ team. Fleet operators are increasingly becoming a key part of the company’s supply base with an expectation that they will play an even larger role with rollout of electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles. He will move to New York to take on the global role.
A spokesperson for Uber confirmed the development.
Uber’s fleets strategy assumes significance given its push towards converting its entire fleet to electric by 2040.
In India, Uber led a USD 20 million investment in its biggest fleet partner, Mumbai-based Everest Fleet – a deal in which Parameswaran played a key role. ET was the first to report about this investment in June 2023. The company also entered a partnership with Tata Motors through which Everest Fleet will acquire and deploy electric vehicles on Uber’s platform.
Uber also led a USD 100 million investment in March in African mobility fintech Moove, which offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers.
Moove started its India operations in partnership with Uber, launching 5,000 CNG cars on the Uber platform in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru with plans to scale to 30,000 vehicles over the next five years.
Parameswaran also played a role in Uber’s acquisitions of CarNextDoor in Australia and Hong Kong-based HKTaxi, in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Parameswaran also serves on the board of FSN E-Commerce Ventures — the parent company of omnichannel beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa — as an independent director.
Currently, Uber’s India and South Asia operations are led by Prabhjeet Singh, who will continue in the role.
