Abu Dhabi, UAE — e& today announced the signing of an agreement with Uber Technologies, and its subsidiary Careem to acquire a majority stake in Careem’s Super App spinout.
Careem’s ride hailing business will remain fully owned by Uber and continue to be available with all other Careem services on the existing app for customers.
e& is investing $400m to become a majority shareholder in Careem’s Super App alongside Uber and all three of Careem’s co-founders.
The Careem Super App offers over a dozen services including food and grocery delivery, micro-mobility, a digital wallet and suite of fintech services, and additional third-party services such as home cleaning, car rental, and laundry.
Careem serves customers in 10 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
With this new investment, Careem plans to accelerate the realisation of its ambitious vision to create the first “everything app” serving customers across the Middle East. This will include expanding its core food, grocery, and fintech services and the Careem Plus subscription programme across the region while adding even more partner services to the app.
Careem expects significant synergies with e& and anticipates benefiting from e&’s large customer base and extensive experience scaling complex tech-enabled businesses across a largely shared geographic footprint.
This investment is in line with e&’s strategic ambition of scaling up consumer digital offerings and accelerating its transformation to a global technology and investments group.
It provides e& with access to multiple digital verticals, new innovative digital services, strong talent, and new geographies.
e& will leverage the Careem Super App to boost the growth of its consumer digital services, including the expansion of e& life’s fintech vertical, e& money, which will play an important role in the super app vision by providing e& money’s powerful financial service offerings.
In recent years e& has transformed into a global technology and investment group. The company is integrating emerging technologies into its expanding business verticals. e& has 163 million subscribers across 16 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
“Super Apps have catalysed the economic, social, and cultural growth of emerging markets today. The popularity of super apps has come from the need to provide a unique and seamless customer experience,” Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO, e& said. “The mobile-first population has given rise to an ecosystem that has encouraged the use and also expanded the scope for super apps with user expectations turned towards performing their daily activities on digital platforms.”
He added that the Careem Super App, is a digital native that has built a rapidly growing payment, food, and grocery delivery network, and a platform for other digital businesses to scale from.
“The shared vision between e& and Careem is exciting, we believe that together we’ll be able to enhance our impact across different markets in the region while pushing the boundaries of customer experience,” Dowidar said.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber said that over the last decade, Careem helped revolutionize mobility across the greater Middle East while building an incredible brand.
”I am thrilled to partner with Careem, and welcome e&, as we grow the Careem super app to deliver more services to millions of people in this fast-moving part of the world,” he said. “All of us at Uber are excited about the impact the Careem platform will have on this region over the next decade and beyond.”
Since Uber’s acquisition in 2020, Careem has evolved to become a multiservice app offering users over a dozen services. In 2022 in the UAE, Quik, the grocery delivery service, grew 46X, and food orders grew by 86 percent.
Over the course of the year, Careem Pay launched as a true fintech in the UAE with a digital wallet and payments products including bill payments, international remittances, domestic peer-to-peer payments, and one-click checkout.
Careem Bike doubled its network of pedal assist bikes and grew by 61 percent.
Careem launched its popular subscription service Careem Plus, saw its first partner service (home cleaning) grow 4.9x while it also onboarded new third-party partners offering rental cars, spa, and laundry services.