Emirates Telecom plans to buy a 50.03% stake in Careem, the super app owned by Uber's Middle East unit, for $400M; Uber will own Careem's ride-hailing business
Emirates Telecommunications Group will buy a $400 million stake in the super app developed by Uber Technologies Inc.'s Middle Eastern subsidiary …
Context & Ripple Effects
Careem has been unwinding toward this moment since Uber absorbed it in the $3.1B acquisition that closed in 2020-era terms — $1.4B cash plus $1.7B convertible notes: CEO Mudassir Sheikha has been publicly discussing spinning out the non-ride-hailing services into an independent MENA super app, while the ride-hailing arm itself has struggled, falling from Pakistan's market leader to a distant third before suspending service there entirely.
The buyer continues a telco pattern: Saudi Telecom paid $100M for just 10% of Careem back in 2016, and Emirates Telecom's $400M for 50.03% now values the whole super-app business at roughly a quarter of what Uber paid for the combined company four years earlier.
First-order effects
- Uber keeps Careem's ride-hailing business outright, shedding the capital-hungry multi-service platform it had been funding while retaining its core Middle East mobility asset.
- Careem's super app gains a controlling owner in Emirates Telecommunications Group with $400M of committed capital and a 50.03% majority, formalizing the spin-out Sheikha had already outlined.
Second-order effects
- The deal sharpens the Gulf super-app contest, where Careem already competes with Talabat, Noon, Botim and Amazon across payments, delivery and shopping — and gives e& a distribution and billing channel those rivals lack.
- Competing platforms face pressure to secure their own telco partnerships or capital, following the precedent both Saudi Telecom and now e& have set by taking direct equity stakes in consumer apps rather than licensing access.
Third-order effects
- If the structure holds, Middle East consumer platforms split into two camps — pure mobility operators under global ride-hailing firms, and locally-owned multi-service super apps backed by national telcos — redrawing who owns the customer relationship in MENA digital services.
- Careem's Pakistan exit and the discounted valuation point to a broader discipline test: super-app ambitions survive only where a strategic owner can absorb years of losses across multiple verticals.
The trend: Telcos are becoming the controlling owners of Middle East super apps, as global ride-hailing players retrench to their core mobility businesses.