Four years ago, Swvl was the poster child for the post-SPAC reckoning. After a $1.5bn merger in 2022, the Dubai-headquartered mobility startup saw its valuation evaporate by 99%, forced into a brutal retreat from markets across Pakistan, Spain, and Kenya.

But as of February 2026, the “Uber of buses” has completed a metamorphosis. No longer chasing mass-market commuters in volatile currencies, Swvl has reinvented itself as a lean, profitable provider of “Transportation-as-a-Service” (TaaS) for the Gulf’s enterprise giants.

The latest proof of this pivot arrived today: a $1.5m three-year contract in Saudi Arabia to manage mobility for healthcare facilities.

The Healthcare Pivot

The new Saudi deal isn’t just another contract; it’s a move into “mission-critical” logistics. Swvl will now manage the transport of medical staff, patients, and equipment across the Kingdom’s healthcare network.

This follows a flurry of recent wins in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC):

• UAE: A $5.5m five-year contract signed last week.
• Kuwait: A $2.2m entry contract to manage workforce shuttles.
• Saudi Arabia: A milestone of 100,000 bookings with Bank AlJazira.

By focusing on healthcare and corporate campuses, Swvl is targeting sectors where reliability is more important than price — and where clients pay in hard currency.

The “Dollar-Pegged” Hedge

For Swvl, the move to the Gulf is a survival strategy against the Egyptian pound. While Egypt remains the company’s largest market by volume (generating $4.76m in Q3 2025), the GCC is the engine of its profit.

The strategy is working. Swvl has now posted three consecutive profitable quarters — a rarity for mobility startups.

• Revenue Growth: H1 2025 revenue hit $10.19m (up 26% year-over-year).
• Margin Expansion: In the GCC, gross margins more than doubled last year.
• The Hedge: “Dollar-pegged” revenue (from Saudi and the UAE) now accounts for roughly 34% of the total portfolio, up from just 18% in 2024.

By the Numbers: The 2026 Financial Picture

By the Numbers: The 2026 Financial Picture

The Nasdaq Sword of Damocles

Despite the operational turnaround, Swvl is still fighting for its life on the public markets. In late 2025, the company received a deficiency notice from Nasdaq for failing to maintain a minimum market value of $35m.

Nasdaq has granted Swvl a 180-day grace period to regain compliance. To stay listed, the company’s market value must close at or above $35M for at least 10 consecutive business days before the April 29, 2026 deadline. If Swvl fails to meet this threshold, it faces delisting to the “pink sheets” (OTC markets). For a company aiming to be a global enterprise partner, delisting is more than just a loss of prestige:

Swvl must now prove to investors that its new B2B model can scale beyond the Gulf. The company has teased ambitions for the UK and US markets, but those high-cost environments are a world away from the captive corporate markets of Riyadh and Dubai.

The Verdict

Swvl’s “asset-light” approach — providing software and routing without owning the buses — has successfully stopped the bleeding. It has transformed from a cash-burning consumer app into a specialized logistics firm. However, with a market cap ($14.7M) hovering around its annual revenue, the “new” Swvl is a micro-cap survivor rather than a tech titan.

Survival is the new unicorn status. Swvl has stopped trying to be everything to everyone and started being a logistics partner for companies with hard-currency budgets.

The question for 2026 is no longer whether Swvl can survive, but whether its razor-thin profit margins can eventually justify its place on the Nasdaq.