Covid-19: Dubai’s Matic temporarily suspends operations of its cleaning services marketplace across the region

Dubai-headquartered cleaning services marketplace Matic that offers different cleaning services to homes and businesses through its network of over 4,000 service providers (cleaners) has temporarily suspended its operations across the region, it told MENAbytes earlier this week. Matic which operates in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Qatar has temporarily suspended the operations across all these markets due to Covid-19.

The suspension of operations came into effect on Sunday, March 22. In some of the markets where Matic operates, the governments have already imposed curfews and lockdowns but Matic said that they weren’t asked by the authorities to suspend their services and have taken this decision for the safety of their customers and service providers.

The startup that covers 14 cities across these markets and claims to serve over 7,000 homes daily said that it is very difficult for them to ensure the health and safety of every service provider before they visit a customer’s home as many Covid-19 patients are turning out to be asymptomatic.

Matic that is backed by the Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) had also launched a disinfection service to help its customers disinfect their homes but has temporarily suspended that too. The startup said that it will continue to observe the situation in all its markets closely to decide when to resume the operations.

Mohammad Samad, co-founder, and CEO of Matic, said, “As we serve a large of homes on a daily basis, it is our responsibility to keep the health and safety of the people living in these homes and our service providers before anything else including our business. The authorities have advised citizens to practice social distancing and work from home but they haven’t asked services like Matic to suspend their operations. We’ve taken this decision on our own to ensure the safety of both our customers and safety providers.”

He also explained that anyone entering homes from outside the household, be it for cleaning, disinfecting or any other purpose must hold back for the next two weeks at least, “The customers have to take this very seriously and some operators are seeking gains in such tough times. We must focus on human lives today before anything else,” said Matic’s CEO.

The startup during the suspension continues to collaborate with hypermarkets and retailers to offer the cleaning and sanitization services to them through a small group of service providers while abiding by the WHO guidelines.