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Articles by Blair Baek
How Careem went from a $100,000 founder bet to a $3.1 billion Uber deal
Mudassir Sheikha left McKinsey to co-found Careem in 2012, putting in $50,000 of his own money. Seven years later, Uber agreed to acquire the company for $3.1 billion. When Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson launched Careem in Dubai in 2012, it was a basic booking website. The founders manually called drivers — known at Careem as Captains — to arrange trips. They had each invested $50,000 of their own money.
'Give me my money back': South Korean traders' leveraged SK Hynix, Samsung bets unravel after selloff Original
A Korea Exchange (KRX) employee monitors stock market data on computer screens in the Yeouido financial district of Seoul, South Korea, on May 11, 2026. Chris Jung | Nurphoto | Getty Images South Korean retail investors who piled into leveraged bets on the country's AI champions are nursing steep losses after a sharp reversal, exposing the risks of the speculative trading boom that helped fuel one of the world's hottest equity markets.
He knew nothing about trucking. Now 75,000 trucks use his platform
Gaurav Biswas built TruKKer after a dinner-table argument. The platform now connects 75,000 trucks with 1,200 clients. Gaurav Biswas is the co-founder and CEO of TruKKer, a digital freight platform often described as an "Uber for trucks." Biswas did not come from logistics. He trained as a structural engineer and worked in real estate before a dinner-table argument with friends convinced him there was a better way to match freight with trucks.
A dinner-table argument inspired him to build the ‘Uber of trucks’ — now 75,000 trucks run on his platform
Now Phnom Penh, Cambodia - July 18, 2026 Dozens of Chinese tech, industrial firms join Cambodia's industrial expo in Phnom Penh on July 18, 2026. (Video by Wu Zhangwei, vanpov, Nguon Sovan/Xinhua/Sipa USA) *** World Rights Except China *** CHINA OUT ***
Massive bonuses for South Korea's chip workers puts central bank on inflation alert Original
An employee counts genuine South Korean 50,000 won banknotes in this arranged photograph at the Counterfeit Notes Response Center of KEB Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 14, 2017. The won advanced for the first day in four as top U.S. national security officials sought to damp down talk of am imminent war with North Korea following days of heightened rhetoric.
Massive bonuses for South Korea's chip workers puts central bank on inflation alert
5 hours ago The French whaling ship Narwhal braved the Atlantic, rounded the howling tip of Cape Horn, and threaded the Pacific by way of Tahiti and Honolulu. Then, in 1851, a year after it began its voyage, the sea turned. The ship splintered off Korea’s southwestern coast, drowning one crewman. When the 29 …
HYROX started with 650 people. This year it will reach 1.5 million participants
Moritz Fürste is a three-time Olympic field hockey medalist who co-founded Hyrox in Hamburg in 2017, after the city’s failed Olympic bid. Hyrox has since grown into a global fitness racing sport, with around 16,000 affiliated gyms, 121 events in 34 countries and a projected 2026 revenue of $270 million.
36-year-old's fitness company was 'a week away' from bankruptcy—now it's valued at $10.1 billion
For Will Ahmed, the road to building a $10.1 billion fitness startup began with what he calls "the ultimate betrayal." The perpetrator? His own body. Launched in 2012, the Boston-based fitness wearables company now has more than 2.7 million users across the globe. Those customers use Whoop's screen-free wrist devices to track a wide range of biometric data around the clock, from sleep quality to how their bodies perform during exercise and recovery.
143 investors said no to his wearable idea, he says—now Whoop is worth $10.1 billion
Will Ahmed founded Whoop at age 22 while he was at Harvard University, with early prototypes developed out of the Harvard Innovation Labs. He was rejected by 143 investors, came within a week of bankruptcy and built a company now valued at $10.1 billion with 2.7 million members across more than 200 countries, he says. Will Ahmed is the founder and CEO of Whoop, the screenless wearable used by some of the world's top athletes, including LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Phelps.
South Korea's 'ant investors' are marching to U.S. equities even as domestic market hits record highs Original
A currency trader monitors exchange rates in a dealing room at the Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images South Korean stocks have been surging to record highs over the past year, but that hasn't dimmed the allure of U.S. equities for its residents. In 2025, South Korea was the third largest buyer of U.S. stocks, behind Singapore and Norway, according to CNBC calculations of U.S. Treasury data. Investment hubs like Cayman Islands and Ireland were excluded.
Netflix wanted to beat Disney in family animation. 'KPop Demon Hunters' is its best chance Original
"We want to beat Disney in family animation," then Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in an interview in September 2020. At the time, anyone would say that was a tall order. Disney has almost a century of experience of producing animated films, dating back to 1937's "Snow White." Since then, the studio has produced hits that many kids would be familiar with.
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