Jambu Palaniappan – Uber – Middle East & Africa
Written by
General Manager at Uber
Middle East & Africa
Jambu Palaniappan oversees a team of launchers who spearhead the Uber EMEA expansion and are responsible for bringing Uber to over 30 new cities in the past year. Every city Uber adds to its network operates like an autonomous startup with minor oversight from the San Francisco head office. It’s Jambu’s role to expand the network in the Middle East & Africa and to ensure the business sustains in those cities.
The launchers Jambu oversees are described as a SEAL team as they operationalize a new Uber city within eight weeks, sometimes less. They are ‘dropped’ into a city to get business running by being logistically savvy, getting a grasp of the city’s transportation ecosystem and using marketing creativity to encourage user adoption and market penetration. Once the service is up and running, the launchers are responsible for recruiting a team of local talented staff to run the business locally and sustain long term growth.
Uber seamlessly connects riders to drivers through their apps providing on-demand car requests. Globally, the company has undergone rapid organic expansion, bringing the service to over 200 cities in 45 countries since 2009. It launched in the Region in September 2013 and currently operates in 6 Middle Eastern cities: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, and Beirut. Uber shows no signs of slowing down its expansion as it has also announced that it shall be increasing its total headcount from 550 to 1000 this year.