The appointment of a new Head of Treasury in early 2024 marked a turning point for Careem. Under his leadership, a treasury transformation roadmap was launched, designed in close collaboration with Citi’s Client Advisory Group, to re-engineer every layer of Careem’s treasury operations across four strategic workstreams:

Bank account rationalisation – as a first step, Careem went through a bank account rationalisation project where all accounts were reviewed, assessed and closed wherever possible to create a streamlined, more efficient bank account structure, concentrated with core banks. Through this systematic approach, over 30% of Careem’s bank accounts were eliminated, reducing operational risk, banking fees and reconciliation efforts. In addition, through deployment of Citi’s multibank reporting service InfoPool and Liquidity Manager tool, Careem has helped gain on-demand visibility over Citi and non-Citi accounts available in an interactive dashboard in a standardised format.

World class treasury technology – Careem implemented a state-of-the-art treasury management system (TMS) with API-based host-to-host integration with Citi. This enabled real-time bank statements, near instant payments and automated reconciliation – eliminating over 85% of manual treasury interventions.

Working capital optimisation – the company renegotiated its conditions with their PSPs to receiving collections D+1, which significantly helped its working capital. In terms of payouts, Careem implemented Citi’s Virtual Cards to achieve working capital benefits by utilising the cost-effective credit lines that the programme provides, while increasing profit by earning rebates. Careem is also implementing instant payments which will allow the company to move to ‘Just in Time’ funding. Through these efforts, Careem has managed to unlock US$12m in working capital efficiency gains within months.

FX automation and risk management – collaborating with Citi, Careem implemented Citi’s digital FX management solution, CitiFX Pulse^® to streamline the funding of multiple international subsidiaries and FX trade execution across the Middle East and Africa. Centralising both functions through an end-to-end digital FX solution resulted in reduction of trade execution time by 75% and essentially eliminated manual steps including phone negotiations and payment initiation. The solution helps enable transparency to be maintained and Careem can gain heightened control over FX rates across multiple markets as a result.

Through this structured approach, Careem achieved significant treasury transformation in under 12 months, positively impacting key focus areas of treasury, such as treasury centralisation and automation, treasury technology, liquidity optimisation and risk management. This transformation has turned treasury from a back office function into a strategic business enabler, setting the foundation to support Careem’s high growth super-app model.