Meet the entrepreneur who just snared $350 million to slaughter Uber

The funding round is the single largest investment in any startup from Dubai, reports Tech in Asia

“The idea was not just to build a big business, but start one that would have a big impact,” explains Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder of ride-hailing startup Careem. “We wanted to improve the lives of thousands of people and change society for the better.”

And it seems like Mudassir’s on track to succeed on both fronts. Careem’s now the newest ride-hailing unicorn – it announced today that it’s pocketed a substantial $350 million from a slew of investors including Rakuten and Saudi Telecom.

The funding round is the single largest investment in any startup from Dubai. And there still might be more to come – the company says it’s planning on locking in a further $150 million at some point.

Humble origins

The idea for a transportation service occurred to Mudassir and his co-founder Magnus Olsson back in 2012. Both were working as management consultants at McKinsey but itched to do something more rewarding, something entrepreneurial.

Mudassir’s prior background in tech startups certainly helped the cause. The entrepreneur, who grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, moved to the US for college, graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and computer science in 1999. He went on to finish masters from Stanford in 2003.

His first exposure to tech came with a stint at Silicon Valley startup Brience, which had raised $200 million in funding and was considered a hot prospect for an IPO. 

Mudassir moved back to Pakistan but his tech roots stayed with him. He co-founded DeviceAnywhere in 2003 to help test and monitor the performance of mobile apps and websites. The startup eventually grew to a team of over a hundred people – spanning the Bay Area and Pakistan – before being acquired by Keynote in 2008.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here