Exclusive: Careem is winding down most of its consumer services in Saudi Arabia

Careem is winding down most of its consumer services in Saudi Arabia, FWDstart has learned, retreating from the Kingdom less than 13 months after launching grocery delivery in Riyadh.

The retreat has not been formally announced by Careem, the Dubai-headquartered super app majority-owned by Abu Dhabi's e&.

It surfaced over the weekend through a public-facing alumni placement website, a number of LinkedIn posts from ex-Careem leadership, and a direct quote from co-founder Abdulla Elyas, the chairman of Careem's Saudi business since 2019.

In a statement attributed to him on the Careem Quik Talent Collective, Elyas refers specifically to "the strategic pause of our Quick Commerce verticals in KSA" and writes that "this high-performing team is looking for a new home".

The site lists 62 senior staff across Operations, Commercial, Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain.

A separate banner on the same page goes further than Elyas, asserting that "with the exception of Rides and Bikes, Careem KSA is winding down most of its platform services," implying a broader retreat across verticals.

FWDstart approached Careem for comment on Saturday evening. The company had not responded by publication.

The scope is visible within Careem's app itself. As of 15:12 GST on 3 May, a user set to Riyadh sees three tiles: Pay, Home Cleaning, Right Click. The same account in Dubai sees eight, including Rides, Food and Quik. In Amman, eight again.

The Riyadh search prompt also still reads 'Discover groceries', suggesting the rollback is recent and incomplete. Whether the underlying businesses have been wound down or merely hidden from the consumer interface, Careem has not publicly explained.

The wind-down lands roughly 13 months after Careem launched grocery delivery in Riyadh in April 2025 under the brand "Careem Market", a name chosen in preference to the regional "Quik" branding used in the UAE.

At launch Elyas told reporters: "First, we drove you everywhere you wanted, and now we're getting you anything you need." The service initially covered 24 Riyadh neighbourhoods with a 20-minute delivery promise out of an undisclosed network of dark stores.

In September 2025, Careem layered a co-branded version on top, "Careem Market by Tamimi Markets", partnering with the 45-year-old Saudi grocer in which the Public Investment Fund acquired 30% in 2023. No KSA-specific Quik or Market metrics, including GMV, orders, basket size or active users, have ever been publicly disclosed.

That last point is significant context for how dramatic the reversal looks. Careem's super-app pitch for Saudi Arabia has been the most consistent and most heavily messaged growth thesis in the company's communications for the past two years.

CEO Mudassir Sheikha told Rest of World on 25 March 2025, six weeks before the Riyadh grocery launch and roughly 13 months before the wind-down, that owned-grocery was the flagship example of Careem's depth-over-breadth strategy. "Today, we own our own grocery stores, and we own the end-to-end experience of the customer," he said. On Saudi Arabia specifically: "There's probably no better place to be right now than in Saudi today."

Bassel Al Nahlaoui, Careem's Managing Director for Mobility, wrote in Arabian Business in July 2024 that "Careem is first and foremost focused on solving problems in its existing markets by extending the Everything App in core markets like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan. The enormous growth potential in these markets makes them a primary focus for us in 2024."

e&'s own 2023 strategic report framed the $400 million December 2023 acquisition of 50.03% of Careem Technologies as a vehicle to "lead in the UAE and accelerate growth in KSA". As recently as April 2026, Careem Pay launched a UAE to KSA remittance corridor.

The wind-down sits awkwardly against e&'s most recent disclosures. In its 2025 annual report, published 24 February 2026, e& reported that Careem's total GTV grew 92% YoY and that the Everything App flywheel had "accelerated across food, Quik commerce, payments, and mobility".

The report identified the UAE, KSA and Jordan as Careem's priority growth markets and noted "rapid scaling in Abu Dhabi where both Food and Quik experienced significant uptake". Quik was described as "a central engine of growth" with forward guidance to "push for differentiated product quality and operational excellence" in 2026.

The wind-down also coincides with leadership change at the parent. Hatem Dowidar, the e& Group CEO who championed the Careem acquisition, was succeeded by Masood M. Sharif Mahmood on 1 April 2026 in what e& described as a planned transition. Sharif Mahmood inherited the Careem investment four weeks before the KSA wind-down began surfacing publicly.

The talent collective itself, hosted at a Netlify subdomain, is being amplified through LinkedIn posts from ex-Careem leadership using the hashtag-free framing of "showing up for each other". One post from James Turley, formerly Associate Director of Q-Commerce Strategy at Careem, calls the group "Tigers" and refers to "a lot of what was built in Careem Market" coming from "individuals stepping in, figuring things out, and pushing to a level that most teams don't reach".

The Saudi quick commerce category around Careem has been contracting at speed. On 20 April 2026, the Riyadh Commercial Court opened financial reorganisation proceedings for Nana, the Saudi grocery delivery platform that had raised more than $200 million from Kingdom Holding, STV and others over five rounds since 2016.

Egyptian-origin Rabbit, which expanded to Riyadh in April 2025 backed by major regional investors, is understood by FWDstart to have exited the Saudi market, although Rabbit has not formally confirmed the move.

At the same time, Amazon and Abdullah Al-Othaim Markets launched same-day grocery delivery in October 2025, Noon and Tadawul-listed Jahez announced a quick commerce integration the same month, and Meituan-owned Keeta has been gaining share against incumbents since entering with a SAR 1 billion commitment in September 2024. Delivery Hero's HungerStation delivered more than 20% YoY order growth in KSA in H1 2025.

The pattern emerging is one of capital and infrastructure consolidating around aggregator-plus-supermarket partnership models, while standalone, owned-dark-store, venture-funded plays struggle to make the unit economics work.

Careem is the first company to publicly retreat at this scale, mid-build, in Saudi Arabia. Nana is the first to enter formal financial reorganisation. Whether these are the last depends substantially on how Ninja, the Saudi q-commerce unicorn valued at $1.5 billion in its July 2025 Riyad Capital round and currently selecting bankers for a Riyadh listing, navigates the next 12 months.

Of the four major Careem retreats since e& took control in December 2023, the KSA wind-down is arguably the largest. Careem ceased operations in Qatar in February 2023, exited food delivery in Pakistan in June 2022, and shut down ride-hailing in Pakistan in July 2025.

As of publication, Careem had not responded.

This is a developing story. FWDstart will update this piece as Careem responds and as further detail emerges on the operational scope and timeline of the wind-down.