CarFirst announces shutdown of operations in Pakistan

CarFirst, a Lahore-based startup, has become the latest company in Pakistan to announce shutdown of its operations across the country.

“CarFirst has decided to shut down operations in Pakistan,” read a post on CarFirst's LinkedIn page on Friday. The page also lists 365 employees who have added CarFirst as their employer on the professional networking and career development platform.

“We would like to thank our team, partners and most importantly our customers for their continued support throughout our journey,” it added.

CarFirst said that a team will remain in place to handle closing of the entity, and to respond to queries from partners and customers throughout the closing period.

Launched in late 2016, CarFirst acted as a middleman, buying cars from consumers and selling them to dealers through online auctions: a classic consumer-to-business-to-business model.

The online platform provided car sellers a process to get their cars inspected and sold at a price within an hour, including the processing time for payment. CarFirst’s online auction platform for used cars also offered its App, which provided partners and network of buyers a quick way to find the car they needed.

The shutdown comes amid a rising trend of struggle for some companies in Pakistan with several startups and established businesses announcing either trimming down staff or shutting down verticals.

Earlier in June, barely over eight months after it announced raising $50 million, VavaCars – backed by Dutch energy and commodity trading company Vitol – said that it has shut down operations in Pakistan.

Careem also suspended its food delivery business in Pakistan, as it looked to redirect efforts to its ride-hailing and delivery verticals. The company gained popularity as a ride-hailing app before expanding to become a multi-service platform. While announcing its suspension of the food delivery business, it said it will “look to restart the service again in the future when the economic condition is more favourable”.

Another startup Truck It In, established in August 2020 to make freight movement more efficient by connecting truckers and shippers through its online platform, said it is “recalibrating its strategy” due to which some employees “will be moving on to solve other challenges”.

In July, Airlift Technologies, the posterchild of Pakistan's startup scene that was responsible for the country's largest single private funding round in history, announced it is shutting down operations permanently.