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Careem's Mudassir Sheikha: Firmly in the driving seat

dubai - Khaleej Times launches its new 'Meet the CEO' initiative, wherein the region's best business brains are invited to KT offices to share their success strategies. Flagging off the drive is ride-hailing service Careem's co-founder Mudassir Sheikha

Ride-hailing service provider Careem is set to boost its presence in markets - from Morocco to Pakistan - where it currently operates by doubling footprints over the next two years.

The four-year-old Dubai-based company, which has the region's largest app-based car booking service that deploys over 200,000 'captains', said it would consolidate its operations in existing markets rather than make new forays elsewhere.

During an interaction with the editorial team at Khaleej Times on Tuesday, Careem co-founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha said he would be happy to have stepped up its ride-hailing service penetration in every city it operates from 0.3 per cent at present to three per cent in two years.

"We want to enter more cities in the markets we are operating in. A large part of the region [the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan] is still open. There are at least 150 more cities in the 12 countries we currently operate in," said Mudassir, who along fellow McKinsey & Co alumni Magnus Olsson founded the start-up in 2012 and currently runs operations in just 50-plus cities where it boasts a larger market share than rival Uber.  

"It has been a great journey, but we are in still in the beginning," he said as he recalled a series of challenges and failures the company worth $1 billion had to face in the beginning. "We have learnt more from our failures than success as we grew."  

He said to foster a successful company, an entrepreneur has to think big from day one. "The first thing you have to target is a big problem and a big opportunity."

"Today, four years into the journey, we have been fortunate to create 200,000 jobs while serving millions of customers as we kept on enhancing service quality. From the beginning of our journey, our focus has been on reliability, safety and on-time performance," said Mudassir.

For the start-up, which is targeting profitability by 2018, Cairo, Karachi and Riyadh are among the largest markets, with demand stronger among women in the latter because Saudi Arabia bars women from driving. In Saudi Arabia alone, Careem has operations in 25 cities.

The co-founder of one of the most successful start-ups in the UAE said one has to be ambitious. "While ambition is very important, we should not build to flip but must build to last."

"Today we are moving people and are experimenting with adding new services by moving goods."

Already, in Saudi Arabia, Careem has started to deliver cup cakes, flowers and even goats and sheep during Eid, he said.

Mudassir said the goods delivery service would be introduced in the UAE after studying its performance in Saudi Arabia. Initially, cars will be deployed for such service in view of optimising idle capacity during off-peak hours between 9am and 5pm. At a later stage, drones and other high-tech means of transportation will be considered for expanding this service, he said.

Mudassir was upbeat that Careem would be making a lot more impact in the coming years. "We are excited about building a great institution that the region can be proud of as we continue to create jobs and enhance public transport infrastructure."

On Careem's institutional culture, Mudassir was unequivocal. "Most important for us is to look after our people, infusing in them right corporate cultures and providing them with the right working environment."

He stressed that it is essential to instill the right values in the organisation right from day one - to make sure culture seeps down from the top and everyone in the team is cognizant of the ideals they should aspire towards.

Mudassir said Careem has placed a lot of emphasis on getting the right people. "You can have an amazing idea but if you don't have the right talent to execute, then your plans will not work."

"Organisations should have values and aspirations as well. The companies that have been around for hundreds of years have these values instilled in their DNA. Our mindset, from day one, was to make something to last," he said.

He said Careem lays great emphasis on problems as these can be transformed into new opportunities. In ensuring safety and security of the consumers, Careem has developed a screening process for captains that involves stringent background checks, training, constant monitoring and passenger feedback. "We have been getting positive feedback from more than 95 per cent of our customers."

In all 50-plus cities where Careem operates, its services are monitored every 15 minutes to determine the performance. "You cannot improve anything that you cannot measure."

Mudassir said Careem, which has raised $421.7 million funds to date, is not looking at more financing options as the company is well-placed to press ahead with its expansion drive with the resources at hand.

Supporting incubators
"We have made quite a few mistakes in our journey," said Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder and CEO of Careem, "However, as with everything, we learned from them, and hope that students and young entrepreneurs in the region can use our mistakes as an example of what not to do when they launch a business."

Sheikha was speaking about Careem's collaborations with accelerator and incubator programmes in the region. One such collaboration involved Careem partnering with the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) to challenge students' abilities to develop a detailed marketing plan that will enable the start-up to cater effectively to, and attract, the Emirati population.

Sheikha revealed that Careem has undertaken several such partnerships with various incubators in the region, and that the company looked forward to continuing this trend in the coming years.

"We strongly support fostering innovation among students and start-ups, and have always been an active player in providing unique learning opportunities to them," said Sheikha. "We want to be known as a company that inspires others on their journeys and such partnerships are a great way for us to do so."

- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com