Founded by two university friends, Oscar Stapleton and Sébastien Fromageot, who bonded over their shared experiences training in Arabic-speaking countries.

Oscar ran track in Amman, Jordan, while Sebastien frequently ran trails at altitude in the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco. The idea for Haraka Baraka emerged when Oscar brought together his training groups from London and Amman for a week-long training camp in Aqaba, Jordan during Ramadan.