SUCCESS STORY : Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson, founders of Careem
Careem, dubbed the "everything app", offers a range of services including VTC, food deliveries and financial services.
Acquired by Uber in 2020, this start-up stands out for its commitment to employment. Today, Careem brings together more than 2.5 million male and female drivers, promoting female autonomy, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
In 2023, Careem took a new step forward with Careem Next Gen, a program specially designed for young engineers. Its main is to train a new generation of entrepreneurs across the region.
MUDASSIR SHEIKHA
Mudassir Sheikha was born in 1977 in Karachi, Pakistan. In 1999, he graduated in Economics and Computer Science from the University of Southern California, followed by a Master's degree in Computer Science from Stanford in 2003. After completing his academic studies, Mudassir embarked on a career in entrepreneurship. It was in the heart of Silicon Valley that he began his career at Trilogy Software, before joining Brience, a start-up specializing in mobile experience, in March 2020, at the height of the Internet bubble.
This first milestone encouraged him to fulfill his original ambition: to break into the Pakistani market. He therefore returned to his native country, where he co-founded Device Anywhere, a company specialized in software development and mobile testing, which was acquired by Keynote in 2008. He then moved to Dubai, where he was recruited by McKinsey, the prestigious management consulting firm. For the first time, the new consultant learns to deal with large-scale issues, a task for which his engineering training had not yet prepared him. But Mudassir soon caught on. By dint of repetition, he eventually appropriated the methodology and gained in confidence. This surge of confidence propelled him towards a new venture... a VTC application on the verge of revolutionizing the market.
MAGNUS OLSSON
Magnus Olsson is an engineer from Sweden. At the age of 21, he founded his first IT consulting company: Olsson Solutions AB, offering support for a wide range of products and services to small and medium-sized companies. Three years later, Magnus began studying computer science and engineering at Lund University, graduating in 2006. The Swedish student completed his education at Harvard, where he deepened his knowledge of finance. Hired by McKinsey in 2006, Magnus Olsson focused on the technology and new communications projects flourishing in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. But five years after joining the firm, Magnus was struck by an arteriovenous malformation that turned his life upside down. The consultant left everything behind and embarked on an adventure with his colleague Mudassir Sheikha. In their search for meaning, the two entrepreneurs found Careem, a small company with a big impact.
In a region dominated by unemployment and suffering from limited transportation services, the two entrepreneurs wanted to make a difference. Change in terms of mobility, services and employability. Careem aims to meet these challenges. The young VTC application quickly adapted to its environment and saw its workforce grow year after year. Although Careem focuses on recruiting regional developers - in Dubai as well as Karachi - the start-up has also opened an office in Berlin to attract European talent.
For the tandem of Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson, Careem is about more than just mobility. The other areas they are working on together aim to contribute to the affirmation of a region more open to the world and to progress.
Sources :
https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnuskolsson/?originalSubdomain=ae
https://uae-wealth.com/mr-magnus-olsson/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/en-ae/author/mudassir-sheikha
https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/transport/the-race-is-on-for-careem-in-middle-east-661104
