You’ll Only Get Careem’s Brilliant Response To Being Valued At $1 Billion If You Live In Dubai
Yesterday we told you Careem was in line to close a major fund-raising round with USD $100 million secured from Saudi’s largest telecom, Saudi Telecom Company, and today Careem tweeted to celebrate the news.
We also learned a bit more about this fund raising round: Careem announced closing an initial investment round of $350m, as part of a $500m funding round. The investment of $350m was co-led by Japan’s Rakuten Inc. and telecom operator STC.
Instead of the typical press release Careem announced this with an epic video!
Ending the year with a bang! Feeling #blessed. #ThankYou so much for the support! We love you! #startedfromthebottomnowwehere #unicorn pic.twitter.com/aF0wEv1hGw
— Careem (@careem) December 19, 2016
Despite the fatter bank account the folks over at Careem have kept their sense of humor:
Thank you for believing in magic! #Careem has reached #unicorn status. But as usual, we like to keep it local. We prefer ‘unicamel’ pic.twitter.com/sVWmSFqxne
— Careem (@careem) December 19, 2016
Careem now operates in 47 cities across 11 countries
Established in 2012, Careem operates in 47 cities across 11 countries and hosts over 6 million users and 150,000 drivers in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia region.
Uber and Careem go head to head
As we noted yesterday these new funds allow Careem to continue in their battle against the US-based ride-hailing app Uber, a battle that extends beyond Dubai and across the region.
Techies in Dubai are celebrating Careem’s success
MENA’s first unicorn. Bravo @careem leading our region. Keep it up! #awesomemoment #puttingMENAtechonthemap https://t.co/TtOPYkoT03
— Amir Farha (@afarha) December 18, 2016
Unicorn. Middle East. Yup! Awesome @careem Saudi Telecom board approves $100 mln Careem stake buy | Zawya https://t.co/Axks1rElZs @zawya
— Chris Schroeder (@cmschroed) December 18, 2016
Middle-Eastern unicorn ???? https://t.co/4I6KPQRpmr
— Murád (@mrdelzgl) December 19, 2016
Careem is in the second ‘unicorn’ in the UAE
A ‘unicorn’ describes a company which reaches a valuation of one billion dollars. Careem is the second company to have done so in the UAE, after Souq.com became the first in February of this year. Congratulations guys, we couldn’t be more proud of a home-grown company reaching such a huge valuation!
