Arabnet Arabnet

The Dubai-based ride-hailing company Careem announced that it had secured $200M in Series F funding Round from existing investors such as Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding, Al Tayyar Group, STV, and Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.

Commenting on the $200M fund raise, co-founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha of Careem said, “Internet-enabled services are having a profound and positive impact on our region, where the consumer internet opportunity is huge and untapped".

The ride-hailing company is now valued at over $2Bn. In December 2016, Careem was estimated to be valued around $1Bn, when the company raised $350M from investors including Arzan VC, BECO Capital, Wamda Capital, STV, Lumia Capital, Endure Capital, Abraaj Group and Al Tayyar Group.

The company expected to raise over $500M in its latest funding effort to expand into mass transportation, deliveries, and payments. An article by Reuters mentioned that Careem was in early talks to raise as much as $500m from investors back in March 2018. Careem's VP of Global Brand Marketing states that this is the first tranche of Careem's Series F funding round.