In October of last year, VavaCars raised $50 million for development in Turkey and Pakistan.
VavaCars, which is funded by the Dutch oil and commodity trading company Vitol, has opted to close its operations in Pakistan two years after entering the market.
The company’s closure was announced on the VavaCars website. “We regret to inform you that we have closed our operations permanently,” reads a note on the company’s official website (pk. vava.cars).
VavaCars was launched in Pakistan in January 2020 as a used car trader with an internet presence to make appointments for buying and selling cars, as well as brick-and-mortar locations for auto inspection services.
The corporation profited from the difference in margins obtained from car purchases and sales. The corporation has yet to comment on the reasons for its pullout from the Pakistani market.
However, the used automobile industry is highly saturated due to the number of offline used car sellers and well-funded startups such as PakWheels, OLX, and CarFirst that also deal in old cars.
VavaCars is headquartered in the United Kingdom and has operations in Turkey. Vitol, the energy company that backs VavaCars, owns and operates retail gasoline stations in Turkey and has a stake in Pakistan-based petroleum retailer Hascol Petroleum.
Mujahid Khan, VavaCars’ country manager in Pakistan, previously told Profit that the company planned to invest millions of dollars in Pakistan in 2021 for the VavaCars venture.
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