Oman Technology Fund, Careem sign pact

Business Sunday 11/November/2018 13:52 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman Technology Fund, Careem sign pact

Muscat: Oman Technology Fund signs an agreement with Careem, the leading ride hailing company and one of biggest technology organisations in the region to study transport and delivery innovations.
The agreement aims at its first stage to support the government through several transport technologies such as drones and autonomous vehicles.
The pilot phase will focus on the use of drones for logistics delivery services in the oil and gas services and logistics industries. The two sides will explore the possibility of entering into a joint venture or strategic partnership aimed at developing land transport services.
“The objective of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) is that by the end of 2018, the two sides will be able to enter into a strategic cooperation agreement covering long-term cooperation on all or some of the above issues," said Yousuf Al Harthy, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Oman Technology Fund.
"In order to make progress in the discussions, especially with regard to the launch of the plan for the use of drones in logistics transport in Muscat during the last quarter of 2018,” he added.
“As a company that was born and grew up in this region, we are delighted to sign this understanding with Oman Technology Fund, and proud to be working in Oman, having relaunched our services in Muscat with Marhaba and with the approval of the Ministry of Transportation,” said Bassel Al Nahlaoui, Managing Director of Careem Gulf.
“And as the leading internet platform in the greater Middle East we are excited to be able to support a like-minded partner in OTF to share in a vision together and help enable Oman to utilise our technology and platform to work across several sectors in the country,” he added.
“This partnership will give us opportunity to demonstrate how the Careem platform can support governments in their forward-thinking ambitions and help enable Oman to become one of the leading smart cities in the region,” he said.
“We are excited to be strengthening our relationship with the Government of Oman. We are partnering with the Oman Technology Fund to demonstrate how Careem's technology, platform and expertise can drive innovation beyond ride-hailing, for example in smart city development and other sectors of strategic importance to the Government of Oman,” said Samir Satchu, Senior Director Government Relations at Careem.
Careem was established in 2012 and now operates in more than 120 cities across 15 countries and has created more than one million job opportunities in the region.
The Oman Technology Fund is a fund specialising in investment in emerging institutions and innovative creative ideas in the Information and communications technology (ICT) sector in the Sultanate and the Middle East and North Africa region where they manage three main investment programmes, Tachween Investment Programme, Wadi Accelerator Investment Programme, and Jusoor Investment Programme, which was established with an initial capital of up to $133 million.