Denis Opudo
Careem is a company that was launched in 2012 in Dubai. The firm operates in more than 80 towns in more than eleven countries. The company was founded by Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha. Magnus had a mission of developing something reasonable after recovering from a severe brain surgery which almost took away his life, and Mudassir, a tech entrepreneur who was on a mission of going back to his roots by building a worth company to improve people’s lives.
Careem started as a transport company which transported employees on behalf of various businesses. After it had found a reasonable market, the company changed to a full ride-sharing app, and since then, it has transformed to one of the biggest transport networks. In December 2016, the company expanded to Turkey after it had started operating in Palestine in June the same year.
The company is on a mission of getting into newer markets although it targets to make itself more stronger in the markets which it presently commands. The company’s main focus is opening up to various cities apart from the present ones in Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan. Careem is targeting to get into new countries in Africa by 2018. Some of the main targets are Kenya and Uganda. The company’s main target is to utilize the inadequate infrastructure in the African countries to make movement much easier and offer more job opportunities to the people.
The company believes in natural growth as its greatest pillar to its future being. In July 2017, the company received a minor stake in Swvl, an Egyptian startup company which allows passengers to reserve seats on buses and make the fare payment through the Careem mobile app. Apart from the $350 million funding in December 2016, the company has been able to secure funding through equity investment from Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-sharing company. The company’s achievement acts as a challenge to the upcoming startups across Africa.
With its promising growth, the company is not in a hurry of going public. They rather make themselves much stronger before thinking of getting public which is an option they will consider when the right time comes. The company partnered with Didi which gives it access to a Chinese giant’s artificial intelligence (AI) expert. Through this partnership, the company hopes to use it to maintain their ground than compared to other competitors like Uber.
The company’s latest innovation was in August 2017. They launched an app in Jordan that aids customers to book a car service without necessarily showing their phone number. The company is on the move to use the feature in the rest of their markets. So far so good, Careem’s journey has been smooth. They have been able to operate for five years now without necessarily going through the major regulatory issues which their main competitors undergo.
The only challenge was in 2016 when the company had to suspend its operations in Abu Dhabi due to the disagreement with the local transport regulator. The company has been able to offer more job opportunities to the local. For instance, the company is the largest private sector offering job opportunities in Saudi Arabia with 99% of the company’s captain in Saudi are the locals.
With the female-only call centre, the company has been able to employ more women. Currently, the company has more than 2500 employees, which excludes over 500,000 drivers or captains as they are constantly referred by the company.
