00:00 This Pakistani consultant found a golden opportunity that Burr missed
00:03 and turned it into a multi-billion dollar startup.
00:05 Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson are from Karim,
00:08 the main car rental app in the Middle East.
00:10 If you've ever been to Dubai, you've probably used it.
00:13 At first, he wanted to simplify the transportation of consultants in the Middle East
00:16 by creating a B2B car rental app.
00:18 Mudassir found that cars were not reliable,
00:20 that there was no support in Arabic, and that the brand was little known in the region.
00:23 In 2012, he launched with his co-founder Karim
00:26 a local taxi service for the Middle East.
00:27 In Arabic and with regional payment options,
00:30 this service was adapted to local needs.
00:31 While Burr was focusing on global expansion,
00:34 Karim concentrated his efforts at the local level
00:35 by training drivers with Arab courtesy
00:37 and by continuing to build confidence and quality of service.
00:40 The app has also focused on the economic and social well-being of drivers
00:44 and renamed them "Captains" to break the regional stigmatization surrounding the job.
00:47 Today, Karim is the familiar name of car rental services in the Middle East
00:51 and has spread to more than 100 cities in the region with more than 33 million users.
00:54 The startup was bought by Burr in 2019 for 3.1 billion dollars,
00:58 which makes it one of the first unicorns in the Middle East.
01:00 Anyway, now you know how
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