Careem acquires Savaree to take on the competition

Careem, a chauffeur cab booking service available in middle-east and Pakistan, is delighted to announce its acquisition of Pakistani startup Savaree which have been running the similar business in Lahore for 2 years now.

Lahore’s home grown pioneer of car hailing services, Savaree was founded by Madeeha Hassan in Jan 2014. She has had talks with other similar investors and competitors including Uber and Careem itself which she rejected before but according to recent development of acquisition she will be joining Careem’s global product team with the role of product lead for Pakistan.

“We have had serious admiration for Madeeha, her grit, her entrepreneurial spirit and her awesome tenacity. She built Savaree from ground up, knows the nuts and bolts of this business and we are super excited to have her on board and lead product innovation for Pakistan. Careem’s strength in the region has been its localization of products, and Madeeha’s addition to the team is a shot in the arm on that front.” said Junaid Iqbal, Managing Director of Careem.

“This is still dream like for me. Hailing from Sadiqabad, graduating in Biotechnology, launching a tech startup, and to be acquired within 2 years, and now to join Careem, the region’s most exciting startups. I see in Careem the same vision and values that i identify with deeply.”  Said Maheed Hassan.

Careem formally launched in Lahore in October 2015 and since then has launched in Karachi and most recently in Islamabad and is credited for being the largest and fastest growing app based car hailing service in the MENAP region.