• UAE-based super app Careem has acquired food delivery subscription platform MUNCH:ON, as it looks to expand its offerings in the food delivery space. 

• Founded in 2016 by Mohammad Al Zaben, Dana Baki, and Awn Ali, MUNCH:ON is a subscription-based platform that connects its customers to restaurants, cloud kitchens and home food businesses in the UAE. Its scheduling, bundling and touring software solution helps to drive efficiencies for restaurants and cloud kitchens in the corporate lunch segment. 

• As part of the acquisition, MUNCH:ON will stop daily operations and the offering will be rebuilt on the Careem app. The Careem Food and MUNCH:ON teams will work together to offer low-cost meal segments on Careem’s super app. 

• MUNCH:ON is a Wamda Capital portfolio company.

Press release 

Careem, the region’s leading multi-service platform, announces the acquisition of MUNCH:ON in the UAE. 

Founded in 2016 by Mohammad Al Zaben, Dana Baki, and Awn Ali, MUNCH:ON is a subscription-based food delivery platform which connects customers to meals at a discount by tapping into under-utilised kitchen capacity and using scheduling, bundling and routing software. The solution drives massive efficiencies for restaurants and cloud kitchens and has built scale in the corporate lunch segment. 

MUNCH:ON will stop daily operations and the offering will be rebuilt on the Careem app. The Careem Food and MUNCH:ON teams will work together to deliver even greater value by introducing low-cost meal segments that MUNCH:ON has pioneered in the region as well as new food discovery and delivery options for corporates. MUNCH:ON has delivered millions of meals to customers across 20 thousand companies. 

Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and Co-founder of Careem, commented: “The MUNCH:ON team have built a competitive food offering driven by a clear vision to make food more accessible and affordable. The Food offer on the Careem app today serves millions of customers across the Middle East and is growing rapidly. By acquiring MUNCH:ON, Careem Food will be able to build an even more competitive offering with a much richer variety of benefits for both customers and restaurant partners.” 

Mohammad Al Zaben, CEO and Co-founder of MUNCH:ON, commented: “At MUNCH:ON, we set out to build the most affordable food ordering experience in the world. We are thrilled to be a part of a broader mission at Careem to deliver undeniable value to customers, partners, and Captains.” 

In the UAE, the Careem Super App offers more than a dozen services including ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, micro-mobility, payments, and partner services including car rental, home cleaning and PCR testing. Careem Food serves millions of customers with access to over 18,000 restaurants in 8 core cities across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar.