Flyby has named former Talabat chief executive Tomaso Rodriguez as non-executive chairman, a move that comes as the adtech company prepares for a Series A funding round and a broader push across the Gulf and Europe. The appointment positions Flyby to move from its early commercial phase into a more aggressive scaling cycle, with leadership betting that Rodriguez’s experience in high-growth digital businesses will help sharpen both investor appeal and operational execution. His arrival also gives the company a more prominent profile at a time when interest in alternative digital out-of-home advertising formats and smart urban infrastructure is increasing.
Strategic Appointment
Rodriguez is best known for leading Talabat through a period of rapid expansion, during which the food delivery platform grew more than ninefold over six years and strengthened its standing across the Middle East and North Africa. He also oversaw Talabat’s December 2024 listing on the Dubai Financial Market, where the company raised $2 billion at a valuation of $10.1 billion in what was described as the largest global technology IPO of that year. After stepping down from Talabat in November 2025 as part of a planned leadership transition, he is now taking on a board-level role at Flyby as the company enters a new stage of growth.
Business Momentum
Flyby began with pilot programs in Munich, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai, but says those early deployments have since evolved into a live commercial network built around last-mile delivery fleets. Its business model turns delivery boxes into connected advertising units, using IoT-enabled hardware, real-time digital messaging, and rider-level data to create a moving media platform that reaches consumers in dense urban environments. The company says the network is already generating revenue and has attracted brands including L’Oréal, Red Bull, Tabasco, Motorola, and Western Union, while also working with agency groups and delivery platforms such as Publicis, WPP, noon, Talabat, Careem, and Deliveroo.
Expansion and Funding
The chairman appointment comes just ahead of Flyby’s targeted Series A raise, which is expected to finance a substantial expansion of its physical network over the next several years. The company has set a goal of deploying 10,000 smart boxes by 2027, with a longer-term ambition to grow that footprint to 50,000 units across the GCC and Europe over five years. Flyby argues that reaching that scale would not only deepen its advertising inventory, but also create one of the region’s more granular real-time mobility datasets, opening additional opportunities in logistics, urban planning, and smart city services.
Leadership Perspective
Flyby co-founder and chief executive Cheyenne Kamran said Rodriguez’s appointment reflects confidence that the company has moved beyond experimentation and is now ready to scale into multiple markets. In the company’s view, his track record of taking Talabat from a regional platform to a multibillion-dollar public company gives Flyby access to practical knowledge on fundraising, market expansion, and partnership development at a critical moment. Rodriguez, for his part, framed the business as a new category in advertising, arguing that delivery riders represent an unusually visible urban presence and that Flyby has found a way to convert that visibility into a dynamic media channel.
Founded in 2020, Flyby has positioned itself at the intersection of advertising technology, mobility infrastructure, and AI-enabled rider safety, with operations in the UAE and research and development centered in Munich. Its proposition is that last-mile delivery fleets can serve not only logistics functions, but also provide a new layer of digital out-of-home media and city-level data infrastructure that appeals to advertisers, delivery platforms, and public-sector stakeholders alike. With Rodriguez now taking the chair and a funding round approaching, Flyby is signaling that it wants to be judged not as an emerging startup testing a concept, but as a company preparing to build a cross-regional network at scale.