Robust Food Delivery App Fulfills 1M Orders Within a Year of Launch
Build and launch of a 1 million orders app in just 4 months on behalf of a Middle East-based ride-hailing giant recently acquired by Uber.
Careem, the market leading ride-hailing service in the Middle East, tasked Monstarlab to accelerate the launch of their customer facing app and backend infrastructure behind an entirely new digital product line based on restaurant food delivery. Careem NOW was a highly strategic new business line during the subsequent $3.1bn acquisition by Uber, and Monstarlab was able to reduce time to market from 18 to just 4 months. Careem NOW launched in November 2018 and has been thriving since.
Launching a Delivery App To Beat Market-Leading Competitors
Careem wanted to add the capability to provide delivery services for a range of products as an extension to their ride-hailing service. Careem NOW was initially positioned as a competitor to Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Zomato who were already well-established in the market. Careem faced fierce competition to gain the market share that would see them dominate across the Middle East and North Africa. It was expected that the delivery market in the region would grow to around $25 billion by 2022. Careem approached Monstarlab to accelerate the launch, build an infrastructure to last and consolidate their position as a technology leader in the Middle East.
The App
Careem caters to over 33 million customers so this new app, needed to have the robustness and performance to provide a powerful experience to a highly demanding customer base. Not only did the solution have to compete with established competitors, Careem NOW had to seamlessly integrate and mimic the quality and reliability expected of the existing portfolio of Careem services including ride-hailing, digital payment and loyalty programme.
GPS-Tracking and Mapping
Built-in mapping capabilities enables users to track the order from preparation to delivery, in real time.
Single Sign-Up for Existing Careem Users
Customers will be able to log in with their Careem credentials, and their registered credit card will be automatically linked.
Easy Payment
Integrated with Careem’s existing payment solution, users can checkout easily.
- 1 million orders in less than 12 months.
- Millions of $’s generated as an additional revenue stream.
- Live in multiple markets including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt.
- Modern architecture allowing for scalable performance and industry-leading AB testing strategy for new features and product lines.
About Careem
Careem operates in 14 countries and 100+ cities, mostly in the Middle East. They have approximately 33 million customers and 1.2 million ‘Captains’ In 2019, Uber acquired Careem for ＄3.1 billion, the region’s largest tech buyout in history. Careem has recently diversified from its ride-hailing roots to provide delivery services, bike sharing, electric scooters and digital payments. Over the coming years, they are expected to launch the region’s first Super App similar to WeChat and Grab.
The Good Stuff
Strong partnership established with future developments
In addition to the customer-facing portion of the solution, Monstarlab also partnered with Careem to revamp their Merchant platform. Starting in October 2018, the integrated team worked on building the entire front-end for the merchants, customer service agents, account managers and admins for the Careem NOW platform.
“Monstarlab demonstrated their delivery capabilities to the highest level, integrating with our in-house team in a manner which allowed us to maintain full control over the build and launch of a vital new product. The collaboration led to an immense sense of partnership and enabled us to accelerate both the initial and future launches.”
