KARACHI: In a model replicating UberRush, Careem the ride-hailing service has ventured into the delivery segment by acquiring Delivery Chacha, an on-demand delivery service for customers.
The acquisition price and details have not been disclosed, a local technology website reported. Delivery Chacha which is Karachi based, will see its founder Nashit Iqbal make the move to Careem as a result of this acquisition.
The company came into inception in June 2014 and asserts it has made over 0.5 million deliveries ranging from food, cinema tickets, grocery and clothes to its customers.
Careem’s move to innovate and diversify can be gauged from its acquisition of Delivery Chacha and is aimed at denting its prime competitor; Uber’s aspiration which till now hasn’t shown the intent to capture the Pakistani market in line with its global model.
UberRush is a service offered by Uber to enterprises and small businesses for enabling on-demand delivery of products demanded by customers and they have to sign-up for it. Uber also operates a separate food-delivery service called UberEATS in San Francisco, New York, London, Sydney, Singapore, India and other cities in the US.
It remains to be seen, how Careem intends to incorporate Delivery Chacha into its diversified service portfolio, which seems to be growing and expanding rapidly.
This follows a move earlier by Careem into launching motorbike services, an easy and cheaper mode of transport made available for its customers, aside its car and rickshaw hailing services.
Profit tried reaching out to Careem CEO, Junaid Iqbal for comment but his phone was powered off. An update to this report will follow, if he responds back.
