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For decades , bribe prop in Egypt meant navigating a fragmented genuine estate marketplace , relying on personal meshwork , parcel out with commission - driven brokers , and facing developer more focused on selling than serve customer needs .
In 2019,Mostafa El Beltagyco - foundedNawyto make for transparentness and efficiency to the marketplace . Now positioning itself as Africa ’s largest proptech weapons platform , Nawy has raised $ 52 million in Series A funding , led by Africa - focused VC firm Partech Africa , validating its model of combining dimension listings with brokerage house services .
The bout , which also includes $ 23 million in debt financing from Egypt ’s top banks , brings the totality to $ 75 million , one of the big Series A round for an African startup . In 2022 , it raised a$5 million seed roundled by Egypt ’s affluent family , the Sawiris .
CEO El Beltagy ’s journeying into proptech began with personal frustration . After several years put to work in incorporated jobs across multiple country , the former Vodafone administrator wanted to invest in existent estate of the realm in Egypt , a market many people see as a hedge against pompousness and currency devaluation .
However , as he navigate the mental process of purchasing attribute , the lack of transparentness and the prevalence of biased advice became glaring problems .
“ I had no way to look at the market and understand what ’s out there , aside from going almost developer by developer , pick up their brochure and require their salespeople questions , which was highly inefficient , ” the CEO recounted . “ In this sector , everyone is incentivized to push you one elbow room or another . ”
These challenges led El Beltagy to build Nawy to help mass grease one’s palms , sell , indue in , finance , and wangle belongings . Its model , combining a holding listing chopine with brokerage service , has set it apart in an manufacture still dominated by agents with entrenched , offline relationships . The master executive launch the company alongsideAbdel - Azim Osman , Ahmed Rafea , Mohamed Abou Ghanima , andAly Rafea .
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Making real estate accessible
At first , Nawy scramble to batten those itemization . developer were sceptical about Nawy ’s value because it was n’t big enough to drive traffic to their listings . Brokers , on the other hand , saw Nawy as a competitor .
To build trust , Nawy introduced contiguous direction payments , fund upfront , to factor who made their first dealing on the platform . This shift view , head to word - of - mouth growth that has see over 3,000 brokerages actively using Nawy Partners ( its production for brokers ) , accessing live stock list and whippy payouts .
Additionally , the Cairo - ground proptech attracts over a million monthly visitant , with 100 of developers competing for visibility . About 150 developer cover most of Egypt ’s new figure market , which is worth around $ 30 billion , based on 100,000 transactions every year , according to El Beltagy .
Over the last few years , Nawy hasexpanded beyond listingsand brokerage firm service , evolve into a full - deal real land ecosystem . This include Nawy Shares , a fractional ownership mathematical product that lets user indue in holding with at least $ 500 , making existent estate of the realm accessible to Egypt ’s in-between - income population , which has long been priced out .
Additionally , Nawy has developed a mortgage product , “ Move Now Pay Later , ” designed to countenance users to grease one’s palms through installment plans and financing choice in a market where banks rarely offer loan for real estate purchases .
“ The real estate of the realm market is very cockeyed in the sense that most people are buying raw build , not resale . We believe enabling this production will stimulate a bit of a fault , ” El Beltagy said of the embedded finance mathematical product . “ It ’s mortgage packaged otherwise because mortgage are almost non - actual here . ” He total that Nawy ’s $ 23 million debt facility backs this offer .
Immune to economic volatility?
These production have diversified Nawy ’s receipts streams , which the company claims to have grown more than 50x in dollar terms over the last four years , despite the Egyptian pound miss 69 % of its time value .
El Beltagy attributes much of this growth to the market ’s requirement for real estate as a hedge against ostentation and currency devaluation . While the currency crisis did affect local requirement , the influx of expatriate money helped offset the drop .
As a result , the profitable Nawy fold 2024 with over $ 1.4 billion in everlasting merchandise note value ( GMV ) , up from $ 38 million in 2020 .
With impudent capital , Nawy design to expand beyond Egypt into North Africa and the Middle East , regions rapidly emerging as some of the existence ’s most hopeful material landed estate markets . Nawy is place Morocco , Saudi Arabia , and the UAE as its next marketplace ( in the UAE for instance , platform likeHuspyand place Finder already have unassailable traction ) .
El Beltagy note that the company will buy smaller companies along the way . lately , it gain the holding direction startup ROA and rebranded it as “ Nawy Unlocked , ” expanding its product offering .
The Series A round , raised across two tranches , will fund these programme , including march on product maturation and integrate AI across Nawy ’s processes , grant to El Beltagy .
Other notable investor take part in the round admit Development Partners International ’s Nclude Fund , e & Capital , Endeavor Catalyst , HOF Capital , March Capital Investments , Outliers , Plug and Play , Shorooq Partners , VentureSouq , and Verod - Kepple Africa Ventures .
“ We ’re excited to support Nawy as they build the foundation for a modern , tech - driven real estate experience , ” said Tidjane Deme , general married person at Partech . “ Their team has abstruse market insights , coupled with challenging regional enlargement plans and exceptional execution of instrument , positioning them as the light proptech wizard in Africa and the Middle East . ”
