Saudi Arabia’s Al Tayyar Travel Group and Kingdom Holding are among the firms set to make a tidy profit after divesting their investments in Careem following the announcement that it will be acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in Q1 2020.
The acquisition, which will consist of $1.7bn in convertible notes and $1.4bn in cash, will see Careem become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber, although it will continue to operate as an independent brand.
Al Tayyar – Careem’s largest corporate shareholder and an early investor in the firm – announced on Tuesday that it is divesting its investment in the company with an exit value of SAR 1.78 billion ($474.62 million), which will be received both in cash and convertible notes in Uber.
Kingdom Holding, for its part, said that it has completed the sale of its Careem shares in a SAR 1.25 billion deal (333.3 million), of which SAR 565 million ($150.39 million) will be received in cash and SAR 685 million ($182.65 million) in convertible bonds at Uber.
The company expects total profit of SAR 485 million ($129.33 million), which will be used for future investments.
In 2013, STC Ventures also participated in funding rounds in 2013 and 2014, along with Al Tayyar and VCs Endure Capital and Beco Capital.
In 2015, Careem raised another $60 million in a funding round that also included Wamda Capital, The Kuwait Investment Authority, Lumia Capital, and Abraaj Group, which exited in 2017, the same year Careem was valued at $1.1 billion and in which Mercendes-Benz and Kingdom Holding made their investments.
The same year, Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing made an undisclosed investment.
In 2016, the company was valued at $650 million after raising $350 million from companies including Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten and UAE businesswoman Muna Easa Al Gurg.
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