Growth Strategy Lessons from the Middle East’s First Unicorn Start-Up

Careem launched as the “Uber of the Middle East” in Dubai in 2012, with a mission to make life and work better for drivers in the region. Despite technical, cultural, and financial pressures, Careem eventually became the Middle East’s first unicorn start-up, valued at more than a billion dollars. It was acquired by Uber in 2019 for $3.1 billion. In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Shikhar Ghosh explains how the company scaled its operations and expanded from Dubai into Africa and South Asia, without an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ghosh studied Careem for a business case study he wrote, “Careem: Raising a Unicorn.”