Exclusive: Travly cofounder, Talaal Burny, joins Careem

In a remarkably surprising turn of events, Travly co-founder Talaal Burny has left his startup to join Careem. The news comes a shock as Travly raised $200,000 in seed funding from CresVentures just last month.

Careem has been a force to be reckoned with since its launch in Pakistan. Earlier this year in March they acquired Savaree, a home-grown ride-sharing startup, and the startup’s founder Madeeha Hassan joined Careem as a Product Lead.

Interestingly, Talaal had begun to distance himself from Travly around the same time they raised the massive seed funding. While speaking to TechJuice, Talaal Burny now Manager Special Projects at Careem, said:

“I had relieved myself of anything related to Travly almost 20 days ago. I was exploring different options including a Masters degree. It was around that time when a friend at Careem who setup a meeting with Junaid Iqbal. After a couple of meetings, I was offered the position of Manager Special Projects/Manager Fleet.”

He went on to say,

“I belong to a religious family and my mother did ‘Istakhara’ for my future with Travly, which, was not in favor of myself and Travly both. My new role at Careem is entirely different from what I had been doing at Travly. I left the startup in good terms and the Travly team has been very supportive.”

The founder and CEO of Travly, Shahmir, while speaking to TechJuice said,

“Talaal is cent percent true in his statement. We are in good terms and he wouldn’t be taking any projects at Careem which are in competition with Travly whatsoever. The whole thing was discussed with our investor, Humayun Mazhar, who was open to discussion and feedback. As long as the critical cofounders don’t leave, he is fine! Travly will not be effected with any departures.”

Shahmir also had to add a few things but he will be sharing that with TechJuice readers in an official statement later today.

While speaking to TechJuice, Humayun Mazhar of CresVentures and an investor in Travly, said,

“It happens all the time in US, specially in technology industry. Competitors poach the teams of relevant organizations. This phenomenon is not unique to Pakistan only. Travly has 5 co founders, as long as the growth, strategy is not effected, it is fine letting go off people, who are leaving.”

Travly will be revealing their future action plan very soon.

Edited by Fatima Rizwan.