Name: موداسير شيخة

Nationality: باكستاني

Company: كريم

التأسيس: يوليو عام 2012

 المقر: دبي

With the aim of offering customers across the Arab world an exceptional, distinctive service—and inspired by the spirit of generosity and a desire to care for their health and families—the idea for the company was born

Careem, launched by Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and co-founder, grew from a venture into a service reaching millions.

Careem, which offers ride-hailing through its website and smartphone app and lets users track their car on a map, grew rapidly.

Customers can pay in cash or by credit card. Careem went on to become one of the region’s most successful companies. How did Mudassir make it happen?

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نشأته

Mudassir was born in Karachi, Pakistan, to a middle-class family. His father came from a family involved in the rice trade. He attended an English-medium school

and earned top grades, which helped him secure a scholarship to study computer science at the University of Southern California in the United States.

His family could not afford the tuition. He studied physics and mathematics, which helped him complete his degree in three years.

ونصف بالجامعة.

Modasir was deeply influenced by his mother, a traditional Pakistani woman who married at a young age and devoted all her focus and ambitions to her children’s education, while

his father had not had the opportunity to receive much formal education.

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فكر ريادي

He began his career as a consultant at Ernst & Young—one of the world’s largest professional services firms—and earned a master’s degree in computer science from

Stanford University.

After graduating, Modasir could think of nothing but starting a company. Within a few months, he joined a company called Brience in San Francisco,

where he gained foundational experience in 2000.

Raise a staggering $200 million in the first round of funding—the best investment ever for a startup—with the goal of

turning a private company into a public one by taking it public within nine months.

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شركة ماكينزي

Modasser earned a master’s degree in computer science in 2003, then returned to Pakistan and founded a small IT company called:

Device Anywhere, the third company he had founded.

He worked for four years at McKinsey, a global management consulting firm, in Dubai. McKinsey was the best place he learned how to work independently;

He spent most of his time working in engineering. He learned how to approach business challenges, find solutions, and communicate with senior executives;

all of which helped his confidence grow day by day.

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شركة كريم

Mudassir Sheikha co-founded Careem in July 2012. He also served as vice president at Keynote, a company specializing in software development and marketing.

for websites.

Sheikha was responsible for finding solutions for the organization and managing every aspect of delivering products to consumers. He then spent two years in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city,

where he established a full-fledged mobile offshore development center. He later served as director of Solerent, which he had founded.

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The hardship behind the idea

Mudassir met his partner, Magnus, at McKinsey, a global management consulting firm. Magnus underwent a

successful brain surgery, after which he thought about doing something to benefit society.

While traveling, they struggled to find reliable, comfortable transportation. Mudassir said, “In Riyadh, it wasn’t easy to find a ride from

the airport to our meeting venue. Sometimes we didn’t know the way, and we also had to pay in cash, which we didn’t have. So we had to go to an ATM

—it was exhausting.”

He adds, “At first, we spoke with drivers in Dubai and Pakistan who work 16 hours a week about how they could save 90% of their earnings

to help educate their children and face life’s challenges.”

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Choosing the name “Careem”

The name was chosen for several reasons, including:

- Generosity toward customers: by providing exceptional service, unlike anything previously seen in the region.

- Generosity toward drivers: by caring for them, their health, and their families—not merely providing them with a job.

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Finance

Over time, Careem found supporters in Saudi Arabia’s Telecom Ventures and the Al Tayyar Group.

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Competing with Uber

In 2013, nine months after Careem launched, Uber rapidly expanded across the Arab world, but faced a challenge with credibility.

Speaking about the competition with Uber, Mudassir said it pushed him to cut his rest time from six hours to three. He then launched his company’s own app, which helped build trust in

Careem, since it pinpoints the customer’s location accurately and drivers are committed to completing the ride they have accepted.

On March 25, 2019, the official announcement was made that the company “Uber “على شركة “كريم”، مقابل 3.1 مليار دولار.

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Lessons Learned:

- Find the right partner: Choose a suitable partner for the project, making sure you share the same vision and goals and that they bring relevant experience.

- Leverage experience: “Look up old friends—you may find someone like you and benefit from their expertise in your field,” says Mudassir.

- Solve local problems: Focus on understanding and solving local problems, and consider building a startup and assembling a strong team.