Careem expands into delivery business in Saudi Arabia

Careem has expanded into deliveries space by starting the delivery services in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The company has started rolling out the feature to users in Riyadh today. As of now, not everyone using the app in Riyadh can see the feature. It appears that the rates for the service are exactly those of the Go Car type in Riyadh. But we don’t have a confirmation yet. Here are some screenshots of the application with Delivery (توصيل) feature.

We’ve heard Careem’s founders saying that they want to be the biggest mover of people and things in the region but until now all the efforts were directed towards the people part. This is company’s first attempt at things. At time of writing this story, the feature is only available in Riyadh. They probably have chosen Riyadh to test the product and before taking it to other markets including other cities of Saudi.

By launching the delivery services, Careem is taking on Fetchr, the delivery and logistics services startup from Dubai. Fetchr has presence in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain as well. They’ve just acquired a courier company in Bahrain to expand their already established business there. Sprent is another startup that will face competition from Careem’s delivery business. Launched last year, Sprent has made good progress and processes 120 orders daily in Riyadh on average.

We have reached out to Careem to get their feedback on this story and will update it as soon as we hear from them.