Until a while ago, we had been singing the praise of Pakistani tech startups that seemed to be well on their way to changing the traditional transportation and supply chain ecosystem with their services. Unfortunately, the looming global recession has started to feel more real as major star players in the startup sector announced layoffs and suspension of some operation verticals in order to save costs.
The crack in the golden dream of VC-funded startups first came in when Airlift announced that it was laying off almost 30% of its workforce and shutting down operations across the smaller cities leaving only the KLI region intact. This was followed by Swvl which announced that it was also laying off 32% of its workforce in an attempt to ‘realign’ its strategy. The announcement also included the decision to shut down intracity travel to save costs and focus on areas that were more solid in terms of revenue generation. Another company that joined the layoff bandwagon was Truck It In that also surprisingly let go of 30% of its workforce.
The latest addition to this trend is Careem which is, fortunately, not laying off employees but has announced to suspend of its delivery operations in the midst of the economic crisis. The company mentioned that the suspension is sort of temporary as they will be more than willing to resume operations when the economic conditions in the country are favorable.
Do you agree with global experts that the global recession will first burst the tech bubble that we have been all chasing and applauding in the last few years? Considering what’s happening in our country and also globally, it won’t be wrong to think that maybe they are right.
