Careem, Blockchain and Dubai: Mudassir Sheikha On The Future

Following the rise of sharing economy in the 21st century, various ride-sharing applications such as Uber and Lyft have become increasingly popular in today’s transportation industry. Emulating this business model, Careem was founded in 2012, but was set to tackle a much larger problem considering the lack of a proper location infrastructure in most cities that it operates in.

Fast forward six years, and Careem is now one of only two billion-dollar startups, or unicorns, in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

During this year’s RISE Conference in Hong Kong, CryptoTicker had the opportunity to sit down with Mudassir Sheikha, the co-founder and CEO of Careem for an interview. It was no easy feat to build a billion-dollar ride-hailing platform in a location where problems like unreliable mapping systems and unstandardized payment methods are prevalent. Therefore, we wanted to understand how Careem successfully navigated the various logistical and technological constraints that were present in the region.

Watch the video below to see the full interview.

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Careem Partners with Emirates Airlines to Develop Blockchain Application

The Dubai-based company has also been actively researching into blockchain development as of late. According to CNBC, Careem has been launching blockchain experiments in Dubai, including its most recent endeavor – a blockchain application that allows riders to redeem rides with their Emirates Airline miles.

When asked about the reasoning behind the use of blockchain, Sheikha answered:

“With blockchain, we are able to improve the user experience tremendously, because now basically this is a public ledger that allows us to interact with it in a completely different way than we would interact with legacy systems. So, the user experience in our app is going to be very streamlined – you will be able to, through a few clicks, in a seamless interface, redeem miles on Careem.”

Careem Builds Blockchain-Based Wallet to Increase Ease of Payment

Careem is also part of the Global Blockchain Council in Dubai.

“We are leading the initiative with the [Dubai] government to bring blockchain into more and more applications within the [MENA] region,” Sheikha added during the interview.

According to Sheikha, there is a large payment component to their business since most people in the region do not have credit or debit cards. Therefore, Careem is also building a blockchain-based wallet within its application that allows people to more conveniently use cash.

Read more: Iran May Soon Introduce National Cryptocurrency

Careem’s First-Mover Advantage in the MENA Region

A couple of other topics were explored during the interview as well – cyber security, user safety, as well as Careem’s first-mover advantage in the MENA region. One of the more prominent competitive advantage that Careem has over Uber and Lyft is its connection to the local community.

“The mindset is that we have to remain ahead – we have to be the first to understand the needs of customers and captains in our markets,” Sheikha said. “Unlike many other parts of the world, location infrastructure is is not as developed in the Middle East…so there is a lot of investment in differentiating through having a better pickup experience, a better drop-off experience by having more reliable location information.”