Dubai-based private ride-hailing company Careem has awarded France’s Orange Business Services with a three-year contract for the provision of network and contact centre services.

The package includes network services that will connect Careem’s offices in Cairo, Dubai and Paris, the French firm said in a statement.

The total solution would allow Careem to reduce fixed voice costs and route calls.

Founded in 2012, Careem has over 400 contract centre agents that process over 10, 000 calls a day from 80 cities across 13 countries.

Innovation advocates consider Careem the Middle East region’s second most successful unicorn, following in the steps of Souq.com, which US-based Amazon recently acquired.

Careem is now estimated to be valued at $1bn following a $350m investment made in December last year by Japan’s Rakuten Incorporated and Saudi Telecom Company (STC).

Earlier this month, UAE-based equity firm Abraaj Group, one of the investors in Careem, sold its shareholding to Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding. Abraaj invested in the company in 2015.

Other investors include Al-Tayyar Group, Beco Capital, El-Sewedy Investments, Endure Capital, Lumia Capital, SQM Frontier and Wamda Capital.

In June last year, US-based ride hailing service and Careem rival Uber raised $3.5bn from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), a move that will help the company expand in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.