Forbes Middle East just announced the top 5 unicorns in the Middle East, with popular ride-hailing apps Careem and Swvl making the list. The other three companies were Kitopi, a cloud-kitchen platform, Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), and Fawry, a financial firm. Each of these five Middle Eastern unicorns was worth at least $1 billion as of December 2021. Two of them were founded last year, two of them went public, and one was acquired. According to Forbes, Careem was valued at $1 billion during a funding round in 2016 after rapidly scaling to over 100 locations across 14 countries in the Middle East and South Asia.
Careem was founded by entrepreneurs Magnus Olsson, Abdullah Elyas, and Mudassir Sheikha and was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2020, making it the largest tech acquisition in the Middle East at the time. Both companies continued to run their regional services and independent brands once the merger was completed.
Careem is the most popular ride-hailing app in Pakistan nowadays. During the last five years, the company has invested more than PKR 100 million in Pakistan, building a client base of 9-10 million and completing 236 million rides.
Careem Pakistan’s customer base is made up of 64 percent men and 36 percent women, with 800,000 registered Captains. Careem is also noted for taking the lead in combating the social “shock-factor” of female drivers.
Careem now has over 1,600 female Captains with an average rating of 4.83. Women Captains have completed nearly 570,000 rides over a distance of 4,500,000 kilometers.
Madiha Javed, Director of Communication at Careem Pakistan, expressed her feelings., “We are ecstatic to see Careem being recognized for the impact it has made in the region over the years.”
“With a collective purpose of simplifying and improving the lives of people, each and every colleague at Careem has worked tirelessly to pave a way for a shift in the digital ecosystem and ultimately contributed to this vision,” she continued.
“We are also humbled by the fact that Careem has been able to provide income opportunities to the masses in Pakistan and will continue to do so. What excites me the most is that the opportunity in the region is still massive and we have barely scratched the surface. We are just getting started,” Madiha further added.
Careem is evolving into a Super App, with many prospects as it expands its services beyond people mobility (ride-hailing) to include mobility of items and money, such as food, daily needed deliveries, peer-to-peer credit transfer, and cell top-ups.
On the other hand, the UAE-based app for booking buses, Swvl, agreed to merge with U.S. SPAC Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, allowing it to become a publicly-traded company and the first $1.5 billion unicorn from the Middle East to be listed on NASDAQ, escalating its popularity in the Pakistani market.
Swvl, founded in Egypt by Mostafa Kandil, Mahmoud Nouh, and Ahmed Sabbah, was ranked second on Forbes Middle East’s ‘The Middle East’s 50 Most-Funded Startups’ list in 2020, with $92 million in investment.
Delighted to be listed among the top 5 Middle East unicorns by Forbes, Ayesha Mehmood, Head of Marketing at Swvl Pakistan, said, “I am proud to see Swvl being listed among the top 5 Middle East Unicorns by Forbes! It is a reflection of the hard work and ideas coming together and being acknowledged!”
“With the aim to transform the mass transit system in the eastern world, we are now headed to conquer the west as well! The beauty of the idea was present in simplifying the everyday lives of our customers via a tech-driven mobility solution. The team is rigorously working on improving the experience of our users day by day and we feel privileged to learn the impact our service has made on the daily lives of the people,” she added.
“With innovation as our key driver, we have aimed for a risk-free, comfortable, and reliable service. I am confident that Swvl will continue to grow exponentially and achieve a high standard for daily commute partners!” Ayesha further stated.
