Careem, the United Arab Emirates-based ride hailing service backed by multiple corporate investors, has begun discussions to raise $500m at a valuation of up to $1.5bn, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
The company is in talks with undisclosed investors, according to people familiar with the matter, and the prospective funding is expected to precede an initial public offering.
Founded in 2012, Careem operates an on-demand ride platform that spans 90 cities across the Middle East, Northern Africa, Turkey and Pakistan. It relies on a network of more than 500,000 drivers, and like competitors such as Uber, has diversified into food delivery.
Careem’s last funding came through an August 2017 investment of undisclosed size by China-based ride provider Didi Chuxing, which in turn followed just over $570m of earlier equity financing.
Telecommunications firm Saudi Telecom invested $1.7m in the company in 2013, and joined travel services provider Al Tayyar for a $10m round the following year. They both featured in Careem’s $60m series C in 2015, alongside Impulse, Abraaj Group, Beco Capital, Lumia Capital and Wamda Capital.
The company subsequently raised $350m at a $1bn valuation in late 2016, securing the cash from Saudi Telecom, which invested $100m, e-commerce firm Rakuten, Al Tayyar, Abraaj, Lumia, Beco, Wamda, SQM Frontier, El Sewedy Investments and Endure Capital.
The 2016 funding represented the first tranche of a $500m round that closed in June 2017, after Rakuten, carmaker Daimler, investment holding company Kingdom Holding, DCM Ventures and Coatue Management supplied the rest.