Uber's $100m Careem move sets a clear path toward 2031
Uber is moving to take control of Careem, the Dubai-born super app it acquired and then set free, in a transaction that brings the two companies back into the closer alignment they shared before 2019. Careem co-founder and chief executive Mudassir Sheikha announced the deal on Monday, telling followers that Uber was acquiring a controlling stake in Careem through a combination of additional capital and the purchase of a portion of e&'s shares. "While e& will remain a meaningful shareholder and close strategic partner, this move brings Careem and Uber back into a closer, deeply familiar alignment," he wrote.
The mechanics confirmed by e& fill in the financial detail beneath Sheikha's announcement. The UAE telecoms group said it had sold a 12.5% stake in Careem Technologies to Uber for $100 million in cash, adjusting its holding from 50.03% to 37.53% while keeping a substantial position in a platform it helped build into the region's most prominent technology business. e& takes a step back, Uber steps forward, and the structure the two have operated under since 2019 enters a new phase with both still invested in the outcome.
Why now?
To understand why this matters, it helps to recall how unusual the original arrangement was. Uber bought Careem outright in 2019 for $3.1 billion in what remains one of the largest technology acquisitions the Middle East has produced, then made the counterintuitive decision to let the business operate independently rather than fold it into the global parent. Sheikha returned to that history in his message.
"We came together in 2019, and when the time came, we charted our own independent course to build and grow the Everything App in partnership with e&," he wrote. e& took a controlling position in Careem's super app entity in the years that followed, giving the ride-hailing pioneer a local anchor shareholder and the latitude to build what Sheikha and his team had been describing since 2020 as the region's "Everything App," a single platform spanning rides, food, quick commerce, subscriptions and payments.
That backing produced results both sides were happy to quote. Sheikha said the independent structure had enabled the company to "accelerate our growth, increasing top-line by almost 5X in the last couple of years," and credited the period with proving the Everything App concept Careem first introduced in the region in 2020.
e& put the same momentum in its own terms, noting that Careem's gross transaction value in core services grew almost fivefold over two years across the Food, Quik, Plus and Pay verticals, with market share gains in the UAE during a period when global delivery economics were punishing operators elsewhere. The years under e&'s ownership turned Careem into the platform that Uber now wants more closely tied to it, and e& is choosing a moment of strength to reshape its position.
Continued focus
For e&, the rationale is one of strategic clarity and disciplined capital allocation. The group said the partial sale would let Careem benefit from Uber's global technology experience and platform synergies while positioning it for its next phase of growth, and that the move reflected e&'s "increased strategic focus on its core businesses and disciplined capital allocation priorities." e& is concentrating on connectivity and its broader technology portfolio while realising value from a position it nurtured, a decision made from a position of strength after the company reported a 23% revenue surge in 2025.
Importantly, e& is not stepping away from Careem's future. The 37.53% residual stake keeps the telecoms group as the meaningful shareholder that Sheikha described, and the agreement includes a put option allowing e& to require Uber to buy its remaining shares, alongside a reciprocal call option allowing Uber to acquire them. Those options are exercisable between December 2031 and January 2032, giving both sides a clear, mutually agreed horizon and the flexibility to plan around it. e& said it would continue working closely with management and fellow shareholders to support Careem as a high-potential growth platform, signalling that its conviction in the business has outlasted its majority holding.
Why Uber wants the region closer
Uber's appetite for tighter alignment reflects how central the Gulf has become to its ambitions. Sheikha traced that commitment in his message, pointing to Uber's entry into the region in 2013, the landmark 2019 acquisition, its support for Careem through the pandemic and more recent global-first autonomous vehicle launches. "From their entry in 2013 to our landmark 2019 acquisition to standing by us through the pandemic, and more recently, launching global-first autonomous vehicles, they have been the ultimate catalyst for the region's tech ecosystem," he wrote. Those AV services have been expanding in Abu Dhabi toward landmarks such as the Corniche and the Grand Mosque. A region that started as a market has become a proving ground, and one Uber wants to build on directly.
The timing also fits a wider pattern in Uber's dealmaking. The same week, the company moved to acquire Getir's food delivery business and take a 15% stake in its grocery and retail operations, signalling a renewed willingness to consolidate assets across its markets. Sheikha was effusive about Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, thanking him for "long-standing trust, partnership, and unwavering commitment to our region," and reserved similar gratitude for e&'s Hatem Dowidar, whom he thanked "for believing in the Careem Everything App vision," along with group executives Khalifa AlShamsi and Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, whose teams he credited with steady support through the independent chapter.
What happens next
The deal remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and the larger questions sit beyond the $100 million headline. Whether Uber preserves Careem as a distinct regional brand or gradually integrates it, how the Everything App identity evolves from here, and how the 2031 option window shapes both companies' planning remain to be settled. Sheikha closed his message the way Careem marks its anniversaries, addressing customers, partners, colleagues and the drivers it calls captains before signing off, "Yalla Careem, let's keep building! We are just 14 years in," an insistence that the story is beginning rather than closing as the partnership behind it enters its next phase.
