Careem's prime supporters on finding a reason for fabricating a unicorn

Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson ponder the beginning of sending off their Center East ride-sharing application, the significance of an organization's importance, and what lies ahead for both Careem and new companies in the district.

From the moment that Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson first decided to launch their own start-up in the Middle East, they knew they wanted to build something both “big and meaningful.” Almost a decade into their journey with Careem, they are succeeding beyond the wildest expectations—on both counts. 

What started in Dubai as a grassroots ride-sharing app back in 2012 has evolved into a full-fledged platform and Super App expanding across the region, bringing new opportunities for employment and access to services for millions of people.

Through the Super App, Mudassir and Magnus are building a platform that leapfrogs the region into a digital future, further empowering the start-up ecosystem and giving people a much easier way to access services that lead to a better life. Just before the start of the pandemic, in early 2020, Mudassir and Magnus met in Dubai with Jaleel Rawther.

But then Magnus came and said, “Hey, I want to build something big and meaningful,” I’m like, “Man, that sounds amazing. And I think at some point, if I remember, I came and met you, said, “Hey, I want to take some time off to think of what to do next.” And you asked me, “Hey, what is that thing that you’re thinking of?” And I gave you a couple of ideas, I don’t even remember what those ideas were.

That’s a big problem to solve.” And that’s really where the whole thing started. So, the more we started working on this, we realized that this really has the potential to make an impact in the lives of captains. Magnus Olsson: In more recent years, I think we have come to realize that we can bring Careem to colleagues by creating an environment where this amazing talent that we have in the region can learn and grow because you need a platform to learn.

Mudassir Sheikha: But I think the biggest and most gratifying thing is this ability to give people some meaningful employment, give people the ability to earn an income on the platform. Within an hour after the announcement was made, we took an oath to society that we will create a few thousand women captains on our platform by a certain time.

Jaleel Rawther: From your experience, what are some of the major organizational obstacles to launching start-ups in the region?

Mudassir Sheikha: Things have evolved a lot since we started. If you’re building a technology business, you need to invest in building a technology platform that can scale to doing millions of transactions on a daily basis. So, I wish the region would come together a little bit more and make it easy and seamless for businesses to operate in this region that has a large market, 600 million people that live here.

But the third level, which I’m hoping that we can get to, is that if you know what you care about as an individual you can channel that through Careem, and we have a relatively large canvas, we want our purposes to simplify and improve the lives of people in the region and build an awesome organization that inspires.

There are 600 million people that live in this region from Morocco to Pakistan. In Chapter 2, as well as Chapter 3, 4, and 5 that come after it, Careem should become the platform that leapfrogs this region into the digital future and gives the people of this region a much simpler, easier, more efficient, and reliable way to access and procure services that they need to live better lives. And, you know, we’re in the region, so we need to see what we can do to help.

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