KARACHI: The start-up ecosystem in Pakistan had a tumultuous day on Thursday with at least three notable players announcing service suspension, rollbacks and layoffs.
Citing shifting economic conditions, prominent ride-hailing service Careem said it has suspended its food service in Pakistan. An official statement said the move will help the company focus on serving its customers’ needs for ride-hailing and delivery segments instead. It vowed to “look to restart the service again” whenever the “economic condition” becomes more favourable.
The company laid off only one person while the rest were accommodated in the mobility segment, a spokesperson for Careem told Dawn in a phone interview. The company remains committed to ride-hailing and (non-food) delivery services, they said.
The official statement didn’t mention exactly which “economic” indicators led the company to suspend its food service. Referring to elusive reasons like the global recession, the spokesperson said the company can’t “burn cash” on the food delivery service that it started in 2019. They refused to say whether Careem operations have hit breakeven in Pakistan.
