UAE telecoms giant e& has agreed to sell 12.5% of Careem Technologies back to Uber for $100 million, reducing its majority holding to 37.5% as it retreats from its super app ambitions.
When e& paid $400 million for the stake in Careem Technologies in 2023, the bet was on an app that could do it all for a certain kind of city dweller, with food and services delivery, digital wallets, and bike rentals on a single platform. That idea has long been popular in China, but the vision looks harder to execute in the UAE. Abu Dhabi government-backed TAMM consolidates hundreds of public services onto a single platform — it can even marry you — and the emergence of AI agents that can order food deliveries, book services, and process payments threatens to render the super app concept obsolete.
The deal provides for a full exit: e& holds a put option allowing it to force Uber to buy its remaining stake, exercisable from late 2031, with Uber holding a mirroring call option over the same period.