Going The Extra Mile: Blacklane’s Adib Samara Explains How

What does it really mean to “go the extra mile”?

That’s what Inc. Arabia sought to find out in Riyadh through a conversation with Adib Samara, General Manager for Saudi Arabia at Blacklane, a global chauffeur service operating in more than 500 cities around the world—and one that counts “going the extra mile” as one of its core values.

This ethos is now being put to the test—and into practice—across the Kingdom, where Blacklane’s growing footprint offers a real-time view of how the company is translating its values into action in a market where expectations are rising fast, and change is happening even faster.

“For us at Blacklane, delivering excellence isn’t just ambitious,” Samara told Inc. Arabia. “It’s our standard. And guided by our values internally of care, of drive, of excellence, we aim to elevate every part of the customer experience.”

This commitment to raising the bar is something Samara can relate to on multiple levels. For one, there’s his career trajectory, which has included leadership roles at companies like Nestlé, Careem, and Sweetheart Kitchen—businesses whose growth journeys he’s helped shape in the region, and that, in turn, have contributed to how he thinks about scale, customer experience, and operational discipline at Blacklane today.

Adib Samara, General Manager - KSA, Blacklane, at Inc. Arabia’s Best In Business Awards 2025.

Plus, Samara is doing all this in a market that he has personal ties to—having grown up in Saudi Arabia in the ‘80s and ‘90s, he’s now back in the Kingdom, working out of Riyadh, at a time of immense change for the nation. “The energy level in the city is buzzing,” Samara said. “There is an excitement for all the change that’s taking place. And I think, for me, it’s such a big opportunity, as the general manager for Blacklane [in Saudi Arabia], we get a chance within this transformation to set the standard, or set the benchmark for what premium mobility can be. And I think this is a great milestone not just for Blacklane within the region, but for our global growth story.”

Blacklane’s growing footprint in the Kingdom follows the Berlin-born enterprise’s US$65 million Series G funding round in October 2024, which brought on TASARU Mobility Investments—a firm wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund—as a key investor. Blacklane is already operating in the Kingdom in cities like Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Mecca, and Medina, and Samara confirmed to Inc. Arabia that more Saudi cities are in the pipeline. But even as Blacklane rapidly expands across the Kingdom, Samara noted that delivering on its service promise will need to begin with a clear understanding of what its customers actually value today. “Our guests aren’t just looking for transportation,” he pointed out. “They’re looking for their time back. They’re looking at personalized experiences. They’re looking at really being taken care of.”

Meeting such benchmarks thus means not only anticipating guest needs, but also adapting the experience to local realities— while also keeping up with changing expectations. “What may be a premium experience today may not be so tomorrow,” Samara explained. “The speed of change is happening so quickly. So, it keeps us on our toes. It means we need to keep running. It means we always need to think how to innovate, and we need to localize.”

It is thus to Blacklane’s credit that this mindset is already visible in the partnerships it has been forging across the Kingdom. Take, for example, its tie-up with Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new government-owned airline, announced in June, which will see Blacklane provide chauffeur services for the carrier’s “international business elite, business class and eligible loyalty guests.” In a statement, Blacklane co-founder and CEO Dr. Jens Wohltorf noted that the partnership would offer guests “a thoughtfully curated journey, marked by reliability, sophistication, and genuine care,” while Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas pointed out that it’d ensure the airline’s customers “experience Saudi hospitality with world-class service standards.”

Adib Samara, General Manager-KSA, Blacklane, at Inc. Arabia’s Best In Business Awards 2025.

Blacklane’s push to localize while innovating doesn’t stop there though. This year has seen the company also announce partnerships with electric vehicle (EV) pioneer Lucid as well as EV charging provider EVIQ that reinforce its alignment with Saudi Arabia’s long-term national ambitions—especially on the sustainability front. While the deal with Lucid will see its premium vehicle lineup (including the award-winning Lucid Air sedan and the new Lucid Gravity sport utility vehicle) integrated into Blacklane’s fleet in Saudi Arabia, the EVIQ tie-up is set to expand the EV charging network in the Kingdom. Blacklane and EVIQ aim to do this by defining priority locations for new charging stations, as well as by establishing dedicated fleet-charging hubs, one of which will be at the former’s new Gulf regional headquarters in Riyadh. 

But in Saudi Arabia, forging the right partnerships is only one part of the equation. Just as critical, Samara pointed out, is understanding the market’s appetite for quality—and then meeting it in tangible ways. For Blacklane, that means everything from training chauffeurs to match the expectations of Saudi clientele, to providing hydration packs from wellness brand Humantra to help guests manage the Kingdom’s heat. “Every market has its nuances,” Samara explained. “Saudi Arabia is within this transformation, [and] there’s a big focus by its population on quality. There’s a high standard, or a high expectation, for what quality is. We’ve opened our doors in the region to the biggest brands in the world, and we have access to everything. And so, for us [at Blacklane], that means elevating the experience, consistently thinking about how we always go the extra mile.”

According to Samara, maintaining an adaptive approach is essential in a market like that of the Kingdom, where change is really the only constant. “Saudi Arabia is constantly evolving, and so, for us, it means we will need to be constantly evolving,” Samara said. “And in order to do that, I think we need to focus on the foundations."

"That really means establishing a high benchmark for what premium mobility is, and focusing on the service today, and where we can evolve from. It’s about building the right team, and the right infrastructure, to evolve as the country evolves.” In that sense, Blacklane’s journey in Saudi Arabia doubles up as a playbook of sorts—one that other business leaders in the Kingdom can also take cues from. As Samara made clear, the real test of success isn’t in reaching the milestone—but in what you do after it.

“Be consistent,” Samara declared. “Never let success lead to complacency. Business leaders should hold themselves to a high standard, but also challenge themselves to constantly evolve. You know, innovation is a mindset, not a moment. Going the extra mile is not about a milestone that you reach in a journey, and then you forget about it. If you want to go the extra mile, you need to keep walking. And so, as business leaders, we need to keep walking. We need to keep moving. We can’t get complacent. We can’t get static. We need to constantly evolve. And that’s really the message I would give other business leaders: stay hungry, stay humble, and keep moving, and keep going the extra mile.”

Check out the full video for more of Samara’s insights.

Pictured in the lead image is Adib Samara, General Manager for Saudi Arabia at Blacklane. Video and images by Alexander Bungas, Multimedia Manager, Inc. Arabia.

This article first appeared in the August 2025 issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.