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As the weather cools and the kingdom’s sport lovers enjoy perfect conditions, a mobile app has been launched to revolutionise the way footballers can find and book fields around Bahrain.
Malaeb, founded by Ahmed AlRawi and Yasser Rasheed in 2016, has rapidly expanded in recent months and has been used by more than 150,000 players since it launched and crashed through the $1m barrier in terms of booking fees.
Yasser, 25, attributes the genesis of the idea to being frustrated at booking pitches for him and his friends.
The Bahraini, who studied BSc in Accounting and Finance at the University of Bangor, said: “The idea came from a personal struggle at securing football pitches and organising games. I play three-to-four times a week so it was always a very lengthy and annoying process. I tried to think of a solution and that’s when the idea of Malaeb came to me.
“It was then through my brother that I was introduced to Ahmed, who had the same idea and had already started working on it briefly. We then started working harder on the idea until it became a reality.”
The app is simple to use, with the whole process from opening the app to booking a field taking less than a minute. Prior to Malaeb, this procedure could take anywhere from five minutes to many hours depending on access to the field’s contact information and actually getting a response.
Ahmed, 22, who studied BSc in Computer Engineering at the University of Bahrain, believes that the app is popular because of its simplicity and the increasing trend towards digitalising processes and organising through social media.
He explained: “We have 75,000 regular users and on current trajectory this grows by 25 per cent each month.
“We’ve come a long way since our beginnings with just a small investment. We originally got by boostrapping – essentially carefully managing our funds with no external help or capital. When we realised the value we were bringing to individuals and sports venues, we wanted to scale up and grow geographically which required a large investment.
“We started talking to our existing investors and tech experts from the region to gauge their interest in our future plans, and ended up securing a great sum from a group of regional businessmen who are incredibly supportive. All of our financiers don’t only bring money to the table, but they also present years of experience and an amazing network that we tapped into immediately. In essence, they are what you would call smart money.”
One partner is the Economic Development Board, and a spokesperson for the board said: “As part of its mandate to attract investments in five key sectors that include the ICT and financial services, the EDB works with the private sector and other ministries to create a supportive ecosystem that will help entrepreneurs and start-ups to thrive.”
Malaeb indeed continues to thrive, and now boasts coverage in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia, with an eye to the UAE and other GCC countries in 2018.
Ahmed said: “The thing that excites our team every day is that there’s no such concept as ours that is working dominantly worldwide. In other words, there’s no international conglomerate for Malaeb, like there is Uber for taxi services for example. That opens up the field for our ambitions to be a global player one day, and that will not be too far off. We’re getting there one step at a time!”
The app itself was created by a team of in-house developers who work on the app full-time, and is regularly updated and combed for bugs.
As for long-term goals, Yasser is optimistic that Malaeb will remain a major player in the field by incorporating a regular social experience rather than just being a one-stop place to book a pitch.
He said: “Our mission as a company is to create an outstanding, unconventional social experience for the way sports are played. It is also part of our short-term plan to become a social platform for footballers to meet and join games and we have already launched our matches feature which achieves that.
“This has helped 10,000 players join or organise games around them ever since, and is particularly useful for those who just want to play but can’t organise enough friends together at one time. We aim to keep on innovating and adding new features that would help add more value to footballers”
Malaeb can be downloaded from both the Play Store and the App Store. Users can also follow updates through Instagram @malaebapp or through www.malaebapp.com
