Egypt’s transport and mobility solutions provider SWVL has aborted its planned acquisition of Zeelo, a UK-based B2B smart buses operator.
SWVL in April announced plans to acquire Zeelo for $100 million. Zeelo was founded in 2016 by Sam Ryan, Barney Williams and Dani Ruiz and is the UK’s largest smart bus platform and technology scale-up, measured by bookings.
The company said in a statement issued on Friday that the decision came as a response to the current turmoil in the global financial markets. It also added that it previously invested a total of $5,000,000 in the said startup.
Excluding Zeelo, SWVL also acquired other global startups like Turkish mobility startup Voltlines and Viapool. The latest addition to its buying spree was Mexico-based mass mobility startup Urbvan.
Earlier in May, the Nasdaq-listed company sacked 30 per cent of its employees, as part of its plans to achieve profitability in 2023. A month later, it halted its operations in Kenya and Pakistan as well as suspended a number of routes in its home market of Egypt.
