Careem’s Super App, launched at the height of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, has amassed 48 million users.
The region’s first Super App saw all Careem services made available on one platform, offering ride sharing, intercity travel, food delivery, grocery options, bike sharing, digital payment options, and its delivery services all in one place.
According to figures released by the UAE-based company, there was a 900 percent increase in customers using multiple services via the Super App, with users in the UAE making an average of three transactions-a-week.
“We’ve seen a significant number of people using us across different services,” said Victor Kiriakos-Saad, the recently appointed general manager for Careem UAE.
After an initial drop of almost 90 percent in business on the ‘movement of people’ side of the sector (car, Hala taxi, city-to-city and bicycles), business has since recovered ten-fold; while the movement of things (food, shops, delivery) increased 400 percent; and the movement of money (recharge, send credit) doubled in size.
Kiriakos-Saad told Arabian Business: “The idea of the super-app came from a customer-centricity perspective, so what we wanted was to have a simple and trusted super-app that provides a reward for loyalty. That’s our mission statement. What that means is that we have quite a lot of a user base and what we want them to do is use us in their everyday lives so that we can fulfil our mission which is to make everyday life simple.”
Kiriakos-Saad took over as GM last month, boasting a ten-year background in investing, building and scaling digital businesses.
After starting his career in 2003 within the financial service industry, where he worked as an institutional investor in the MENA region and North America, he moved to work for Intigral, closely managing corporates and start-ups, such as Saudi Telecom Company, to set up and run corporate accelerators. More recently, in 2017, he was focused on scale-ups through his tenure at Precinct Partners, a venture and growth company based in Dubai.
He said: “I’ve invested in a lot of companies from a venture perspective and I like the model that Careem is going into. The reason why I joined at this intersection is, one I enjoy the brand and its values and that’s very important to me and that translates internally, where it’s the way we treat our employees, our partners, our Captains, you see it inside the organisation, even in a remote-first organisation. That validated one aspect, which is more on the emotional aspect.
“On the functional aspect, I truly believe in the model of the super app to deliver value to the customers, but in time, managing a portfolio of services is a bit similar to a VC when you’re managing a portfolio of companies. That’s kind of what excites me and I think my skillset is well-versed to be able to do that.”
Follow us on
