Careem Officially Launches New SuperApp Combining All Its Services

“The SuperApp has been a long time coming, with teams across Careem working day and night,” Careem Co-Founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha said in the SuperApp’s online launch event. “COVID-19 made things a little difficult, but instead of stopping us, it made us run even faster to bring out the SuperApp and support the people of our region.”

Initially launched rather quietly last week, the app consolidates all of Careem’s different services—transportation, delivery, and payment solutions—into one app. Careem’s leadership says the app is now available in most of its 13 markets across the MENA region, but the app should look different in each market according to the services available.

“Imagine a world where you can do all your everyday tasks in one place,” says Sheikha. “A simple mobile app for people who have busy lives and want to spend time on things that really matter. At Careem, we care about your everyday needs, so we have brought together all your everyday services in one easy-to-reach place.”

In addition to the consolidation of its transport and delivery services, the app also aims for financial inclusion, particularly through its CareemPay and giftcard services, which aim to ease access to the global economy through enabling users to buy vouchers for popular services such as Apple, Google, Netflix, and Amazon.

“Credit card penetration is very very low in the region, and in Egypt specifically,” said Wael Nafee, VP of Product. “And what Careem provides and aims to do is—because we have a very strong digital payment wallet—we want to provide a financial outlet for people to access digital services and online services. We want to move people from offline to online, and payments is a very critical part of it. In the future, we want to offer many other types of financial services, and really be the bank for the unbanked.”