Bengaluru, Sep 11: Namma Yatri today launched Namma Santhe in partnership with Keystones, marking its entry into retail and making it the first ride-hailing company in India to build a shopping platform for the drivers on its own network. Namma Santhe runs through a physical store on the ground floor of the Namma Yatri office in Bengaluru and an online storefront that delivers to a driver’s home anywhere in the city.
Initial categories include mobile phones and accessories, three wheelers, automotive essentials, rain covers, safety products, electronics, household essentials, personal care, bags and work accessories, along with other everyday products that drivers and their families use. Every product is quality checked before it is listed, and priced below market rates. Namma Yatri takes no margin on any sale, and no purchase is linked to a driver’s earnings or platform activity. Namma Santhe is open to all 7.71 lakh enabled drivers from 15th August 2026.
Most conversations about driver livelihoods are about what a driver earns. Very few are about what he spends. A month’s groceries, a school uniform, a rain cover, engine oil: these decide how much of a day’s earnings actually reaches home. And a driver buys every one of them on his own, at full price. Namma Santhe changes that by letting 7.71 lakh drivers buy as one.
Keystones, working with Namma Yatri, sources products directly from OEMs, manufacturers, authorised distributors and verified suppliers. Both the supplier and the product are checked before anything is listed, for authenticity, quality and warranty support. Prices are arrived at by first checking what the same product sells for in shops and online, then negotiating bulk and institutional rates with suppliers. Wherever it can be, that saving is passed on to the driver.
Speaking on the launch, Rajiv Ravindran, Head of Namma Yatri Karnataka, said,
“We went driver-first from the beginning. Every other platform optimised what the driver pays them. We removed that. But what a driver spends outside the app was never part of the conversation. Namma Santhe is our solution for that. We take no margin on it.”
Driver with NammaYatri, Chandrshekar S, who bought a double-battery car washer kit through Namma Santhe, said,”App alli order maadidhe, ashte. Very easy. Kit mane ge fast bandhbittu.” Translation: I just ordered in the app, that’s it. Very easy. The kit came home fast.
Namma Santhe joins a growing set of Namma Yatri initiatives built around driver welfare rather than ride volume, including the Mahila Shakti programme for women drivers, low-cost credit access, savings programmes and social security scheme integration. Over time, the Bazaar will add more categories, following the patterns on what drivers actually buy. The plan is to open up the same benefits to drivers’ families, making Namma Santhe a household benefits ecosystem rather than only a driver marketplace.
Namma Santhe is entirely optional. There is no minimum purchase, no obligation to buy, no deduction from earnings, no EMI, and no link to a driver’s subscription status. What a driver buys has no bearing on how rides are allocated.
Namma Yatri today has over 1.6 crore registered users, 1.3 million monthly active users and a network of around 7.71 lakh enabled drivers, who have together completed over 14.98 crore trips and earned approximately ₹2,627 crore. With Namma Santhe, the platform extends its commitment from protecting what a driver earns to lowering what a driver spends. Drivers can visit the store at the Namma Yatri office in Koramangala, Bengaluru, open 11am to 7pm, or order through the Namma Yatri app.
