Careem's original pitch deck from 7 years before Uber acquisition

Uber in March announced plans to acquire Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service operating in 14 Middle Eastern countries, in a $3.1 billion deal.

Six years earlier, Careem's co-founders Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson raised $12.3 million in the company's first investment round.

Business Insider has obtained that original pitch deck, which we're publishing in full, to show where those original backer's 500x return on their investment began.

Uber has struggled to attain the same dominance in the tricky region of the Middle East that it's built in places like the United States.

Those oversights — like taking two years to recognize that most consumers in the area didn't have credit cards — helped Careem, an upstart ride-hailing company founded by former McKinsey partners, scale up with much success.

In its first seven years, Careem would rack up a market value near $2 billion as it continued to expand to 14 countries throughout the region, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and more. Those efforts were fueled in no small part by efforts to map previously undocumented cities and building out complex payments systems that can account for cash fares.

Speaking to Business Insider in February fewer than two months before Uber announced plans to acquire the company in a $3.1 billion deal, CEO Mudassir Sheikha said the region's emerging economic status and infrastructure would make it difficult for an international giant like Uber to compete on their own without local expertise.

“For a global player to come in a start providing a service to the top 2% to 3% of the population is not difficult, they're used to the convenience,” he said. “But as soon as you start going down the masses, you require a lot of tailoring.”

Read more: Careem's CEO ribbed Uber for making a rookie error in the Middle East. Now Uber's paying $3.1 billion to buy it.

But before Careem could become an Uber subsidiary, with the US-based ride-hailing giant coughing up $1.4 billion in cash and $1.7 billion in convertible notes for the company, the small team had to start somewhere.

In March 2013, the group set out to raise its first round of venture capital. Armed with these 21 slides, Sheikha and his co-founder Magnus Olsson successfully raised $12.3 million by Septemberfrom backers including STC Ventures, Iris Capital, and Oqal Angel Investment Network. Based on the company's value in the sale to Uber, those early investors have seen a 500x return on their original investment.

Here's the pitch-deck from those first presentations that began Careem's journey more than six years ago:

优步于3月份宣布计划以31亿美元的价格收购位于迪拜的14个中东国家的乘车服务Careem。六年前，Careem的合作-founders Mudassir Sheikha和Magnus Olsson在该公司的第一轮投资中筹集了1230万美元。 Business Insider已经获得了我们正在全面发布的原始广告牌，以显示这些原始支持者的500x投资回报率从哪里开始.Uber努力在中东这个狡猾的地区取得同样的统治地位，它建在像美国这样的地方。这些疏忽 - 就像花了两年的时间来认识到该地区的大多数消费者没有信用卡 - 帮助Careem，一家由前麦肯锡合作伙伴创立的新贵乘车公司，取得了巨大的成功。在最初的七年中，Careem的市值接近20亿美元，因为它继续扩展到整个地区的14个国家，包括沙特阿拉伯，巴基斯坦，阿拉伯联合酋长国，埃及等。这些努力在很大程度上是通过努力绘制以前无证书的城市并建立可以计算现金票价的复杂支付系统来推动的。在2月份，在优步宣布收购公司计划前不到两个月向商业内幕人士发表讲话首席执行官穆达西尔·谢哈（Mudassir Sheikha）以31亿美元的交易表示，该地区新兴的经济地位和基础设施将使像优步这样的国际巨头难以在没有本地专业知识的情况下独自竞争。“让全球玩家有机会参与为最高2％到3％的人口提供服务并不困难，他们已经习惯了方便，”他说。 “但是一旦你开始走向群众，你就需要大量的剪裁。”阅读更多：Careem首席执行官对优步在中东犯下新秀错误感到不满。现在优步已支付31亿美元买下它。但在Careem成为优步的子公司之前，美国的骑车巨头咳嗽了1.4美元为公司提供现金和17亿美元的可转换票据，这个小团队必须从某个地方开始。 2013年3月，该集团开始筹集第一轮风险投资。凭借这21张幻灯片，Sheikha及其联合创始人Magnus Olsson在9月份成功筹集了1230万美元，其中包括STC Ventures，Iris Capital和Oqal Angel Investment Network等支持者。根据公司向优步出售的价值，这些早期投资者的原始投资回报率为500倍。这是六年多以前首次开始Careem之旅的首次演示：