Dubai-based car rental tech platform Selfdrive expands to Qatar, Bahrain

Car rental tech platform Selfdrive, based in Dubai, is expanding to Qatar and Bahrain as part of its growth plans, reports say.
The company said it expects to acquire as much as 65% of the digital rental market share in those markets with product offerings through its app.
“Our expansion into Bahrain and Qatar is a testament to our growing popularity and success, and an indicator of the changing landscape of the automotive rental market in the region and beyond,” Soham Shah, CEO of Selfdrive, said in a statement.
Shah also revealed that Selfdrive plans to add further new markets in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and is looking at other regions globally including a westward expansion into the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States later this year. Selfdrive’s plans come as the industry is slowly recovering as the world returns to the prior COVID-19 era. The business giants, Uber and Lyft took a bite out of the sector owing to the pandemic.
Two years ago, Hertz Global Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the pandemic continued to dry up travel and tourism and all but shut down the car-rental business.