The ride-hailing service, Careem has expanded its food delivery service to Lahore, allowing customers to order food right from the Careem Super App’s food delivery section.

Careem’s food delivery service, which is already a successful vertical in the Middle East, entered the Pakistan market in October, 2019, starting from Karachi where it has around 1200 merchants onboard. In Lahore, the service will initially cover areas nearby Defence Housing Authority (DHA) with 150 merchants and will soon expand to other parts of the city.

Talking about the company’s latest expansion, Zeeshan Hasib Baig, Chief Executive Officer and Country General Manager, Careem Pakistan said, “By entering the Lahore market, we aim to reinforce our commitment towards simplifying the lives of our customers and restaurant partners, and creating further job opportunities for our captains. We believe that the market offers a lot of potential for future growth, and we are looking forward to bringing amazing experiences to our customers.”

Last month, Baig also wrote an open letter to all restaurant owners pledging Careem’s commitment to work with the industry which has suffered due to recent pandemic, by offering them benefits such as aggregator commission till 2021, no exclusivity and self delivery option.

The food delivery market in the region Careem operates in is predicted to grow to around $25 billion by 2022. Careem already has over 33 million customers on its platform and an existing logistics infrastructure through its ride-hailing platform. The company is set to invest over $150 million in Careem Food Delivery where it operates.