Careem will suspend its transport service in Pakistan since July 18, 2025, marking the end of a chapter of a decade that helped shape the country’s digital mobility landscape, the company’s CEO announced Wednesday, Mudassir Sheikha.
In a LinkedIn publication, Sheikha said that the decision to get out of the market was “incredibly difficult”, driven by Pakistan macroeconomic challenges, hardening competition and the change in global capital priorities.
“It is the end of an iconic chapter: one built with purpose, sand and a ton of relentless hustle,” he wrote.
Careem, who launched his services in Pakistan in 2015, quickly became a pioneer of the applications -based trip in the country, creating thousands of jobs and carrying digital payment solutions and mobility in the main current.
Sheikha recalled the first days of resistance to the idea that women travel with strangers and use smartphones for daily trips: challenges the company overcome through what he described as his “brilliant and intrepid” Pakistan team.
“Not only did they built a service in which millions of Pakistani trusted to move and win, they delivered significant public products: digital infrastructure, trust, regulation, capacity, trust, all of which raided the way for countless local and global digital companies to take root in Pakistan,” he said.
The decision is still at the exit of Uber of Pakistan in 2022.
Pakistan’s start ecosystem has been under pressure since 2022 as companies financing was exhausted, inflation increased to a 38% record before falling to 3.5% and consumption was weakened. Startups that include Aerlift, Swvl, Vavacars and trucks in which they have closed or reduced.
Worldwide, companies such as Uber, Lyft and Grab have left non -profitable markets, focused or expanded to adjacent services, such as deliveries and payments. The increase in costs, regulation and thin margins in emerging markets have been added to tension.
Uber still operates in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, but it has been withdrawn where profitability is still difficult to achieve.
– With additional contributions from Reuters
