Ride-hailing company Careem has expanded its presence in the UAE's FinTech sector, rolling out a digital wallet for its Careem Pay service that stores real money for customers as part of its plans to become a digital financial services provider.
It also introduced a peer-to-peer (P2P) transfer service that enables users to send, request and receive money by using either a phone number, QR code or personal payment link.
Uber-owned Careem partnered with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE's largest lender by assets, and payments solution provider Magnati to roll out Careem Pay and the P2P transfer facility, which are authorised by the Central Bank of the UAE, the company said on Thursday.
“In our bid to simplify the region’s payment experience, we have made the Careem Pay digital wallet open loop and publicly available to everyone in the UAE,” Mudassir Sheikha, chief executive and co-founder of Careem, said.
“Careem Pay’s focus on customer experience, combined with FAB and Magnati’s strong compliance and regulatory position, will bring a powerful offering to the market.”
The increased use of contactless mobile payments was accelerated by hygiene concerns about using cash during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Consumer spending through digital wallets will reach more than $10 trillion in 2025 — up from $5.5tn in 2020, according to a 2021 report by UK-based Juniper Research.
A digital wallet stores users’ credit and/or debit card information and links it to a payment gateway to allow purchases at a point of sale. Similar to credit cards, digital wallets only work at merchants that accept them as a payment method.
Google was the first major company to launch a mobile wallet in 2011. Today, consumers have a number of digital wallets to choose from, including Samsung Pay, PayPal and Apple Pay.
Careem, which became the Middle East's first unicorn — a start-up with a valuation above $1 billion — when US-based Uber bought it in 2019 for $3.1bn, has implemented a digital “know-your-customer” process to meet regulatory compliance and verify the customer’s identity, it said.
“There is a lot of friction in the online payment experience today,” Madiha Sattar, vice president of Careem Pay, said.
“Dealing with cash is a hassle, you need to add your receiver’s IBAN, wait to register a beneficiary, the receiver may not be notified in real time, and the sender and receiver are unlikely to be using the same app already.”
One in three people in the UAE are registered on the Careem ride-hailing app, which offers 18 services in Dubai and features third-party services, Ms Satter said.
This means that there is a higher probability of the sender and receiver using the same app to transfer money, she added.
The digital wallet can be used to pay for goods and services already offered on the Careem app — such as ride hailing, food and grocery delivery, bike sharing, intercity travel, cleaning, PCR testing and car rentals — and users will soon be able to use it with merchants beyond the app, the company said.
Money from the Careem Pay digital wallet can be withdrawn from any UAE bank account.
“We plan to issue physical and virtual cards linked to the wallet that can be used at ATMs and at merchants,” Ms Sattar said.
Careem Pay also plans to introduce international remittance solutions for customers and its drivers, known as captains, as well as other financial services in lending, savings and insurance, among others, she said.
“Payment options for small and medium enterprises are still limited as digital solutions from traditional players are not optimal,” Ms Sattar said.
Meanwhile, Careem customers will also be able to send, request or receive money by sharing a phone number, personal QR code or personal payment link through its P2P service.
The P2P service is available to all customers in the UAE and will be introduced in other countries soon, the company said.
Careem is well-positioned to become a major digital financial services platform in Mena because of the company’s massive scale, Mr Shaikha said.
“We have 50 million customers signed up, four million cards on file, more than two million captains and more than 22,000 merchants in our ecosystem,” he added.
“We have deep payments capability, having processed $4.6 billion worth of transactions over the past five years, are authorised by the UAE and Pakistan central banks and are a known and trusted brand.”
Meatless Days
Sara Suleri, with an introduction by Kamila Shamsie
Penguin
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
Sweet%20Tooth
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Brief scoreline:
Wales 1
James 5'
Slovakia 0
Man of the Match: Dan James (Wales)
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
House-hunting
Top 10 locations for inquiries from US house hunters, according to Rightmove
- Edinburgh, Scotland
- Westminster, London
- Camden, London
- Glasgow, Scotland
- Islington, London
- Kensington and Chelsea, London
- Highlands, Scotland
- Argyll and Bute, Scotland
- Fife, Scotland
- Tower Hamlets, London
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 268hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy: 6.7L / 100km (estimate)
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
SPECS
Nissan 370z Nismo
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Power: 363hp
Torque: 560Nm
Price: Dh184,500
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
2019 ASIA CUP POTS
Pot 1
UAE, Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia
Pot 2
China, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Qatar, Thailand
Pot 3
Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, India, Vietnam
Pot 4
North Korea, Philippines, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Turkmenistan
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 268hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: CVT auto
Fuel consumption: 9.5L/100km
On sale: now
Price: from Dh195,000
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
Scoreline
Syria 1-1 Australia
Syria Al Somah 85'
Australia Kruse 40'
