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 authorized by the Central Bank of the UAE.
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. Like credit cards, digital wallets only work at merchants that accept them as a payment method. 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. 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.