Careem will suspend its Ride-Hailing Service in Pakistan from July 18, 2025 and marks the end of a decade-long chapter that helped shape the country’s digital mobility landscape, the company’s CEO Mudassir Sheikha announced on Wednesday.
In a LinkedIn post, Sheikha said the decision to leave the market was “incredibly difficult”, driven by Pakistan’s macroeconomic challenges, stiffening competition and changing global capital priorities.
“It’s the end of an iconic chapter – a built with purpose, gravel and a wealth of merciless tribulation,” he wrote.
Careem, which launched his services in Pakistan in 2015, quickly became a pioneer in app-based riding-hailing in the country, creating thousands of jobs and brought digital payment and mobility solutions into mainstream.
Sheikha remembered the early days of resistance to the idea of women traveling with strangers and used smartphones for daily commuting – challenges that the company has overcome through what he described as his “brilliant and fearless” Pakistan team.
“They not only built a service that millions of Pakistanis trusted to move and serve, they provided significant public goods: digital infrastructure, trust, regulation, capacity, confidence – all of which paved the way for countless local and global digital ventures to take root in Pakistan,” he said.
The decision follows Uber’s exit from Pakistan in 2022.
Pakistan’s startup ecosystem has come under pressure since 2022, when venture financing dried up, inflation rose to record 38%before falling to 3.5%and consumption weakened. Startups including Airlift, Swvl, Vavacars and Truck it you have closed or scaled back.
Globally, companies such as Uber, Lyft and Grab have left unpaid markets, narrowed focus or expanded to adjacent services such as deliveries and payments. Rising costs, regulation and thin margins in new markets have added the load.
Uber still operates in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, but has withdrawn where profitability remains evasive.
– With additional input from Reuters
