For decades, buying assets in Egypt meant that a fragmented real estate market navigating, relying on individual networks, working with commission-powered brokers, and developing developers, focused on more sales than service of customers.
In 2019, Mustafa L beltagi Co-establishment Navi To bring transparency and efficiency in the market. Now positioning itself as Africa’s largest propatech platform, NAWY has raised $ 52 million in series A funding, led by Africa-centered VC firm Partek Africa, led by Africa, which values ​​its models of combining property listing with brokerage services.
The round, which also includes $ 23 million in debt financing from the top banks of Egypt, brings up to $ 75 million, one of the largest series for an African startup. In 2022, it raised one $ 5 million seed round Under the leadership of Egyptian’s wealthiest family, Sourties.
CEO L Beltagi’s journey in Proptech began with individual frustration. After several years of working in corporate jobs in many countries, former Vodafone wanted to invest in real estate in Executive Egypt, a market many people see as a defense against inflation and currency devaluation.
However, as he navigated the process of purchasing the property, the lack of transparency and the prevalent advice became horrific problems.
The CEO said, “I had no way to see the market and understand that the developer almost separated from the developer, separating their brochure and asking their salespersons questions, which was very disabled.” “In this region, everyone is encouraged to push you in a way or another.”
These challenges motivated L-Beltagi to build Nawy to help people buy, sell, invest, manage and manage property. Mixing a property listing platform with brokerage services, its model, has separated it in an industry, which is still dominating with agents, dominating offline relations. Chief Executive launched with the company Abdel-Azim Usman, Ahmed Rafia, Mohammad Abu Ghanima And Ellie Rafia,
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First, Nawy struggled to secure those listings. The value of the developers Navy was suspected as it was not enough to run traffic in their listing. On the other hand, brokers saw the Navy as a competitor.
To build the trust, NAWY introduced immediate commission payment, funded upfront, brokers who made their first transactions on the platform. This changed spirit, leading to the word-of-mouthed growth, which has actively seen more than 3,000 brokerage using Nawy Partners (its product for brokers), reaches live inventory and flexible payments.
Additionally, the Cairo-based proptech attracts more than one million monthly visitors, with hundreds of developers compete for visibility. Around 150 developers cover most of Egyptian build markets, Price is about 30 billion dollarsAccording to L. beltagi, on the basis of 100,000 transactions annually.
Over the years, Nawy has Extended beyond listing And brokerage services, a full-stack real estate develops in the ecosystem. It includes nawy shares, a partial ownership product that allows users to invest in property with at least $ 500, which makes the real estate accessible to Egyptian’s middle-oriented population, which has been priced for a long time.
Additionally, NAWY has developed a mortgage product, “Now proceed later,” is designed to allow users to purchase through installment plans and financing options where banks rarely provide loans for real estate purchases.
El Beltagi said about the embedded finance product, “The real estate market is very rare in the sense that most people are buying new builds, not resale. We believe that enabling this product will change slightly.” “This mortgage is packed in a different way because the mortgage is almost negligible here.” He said that Nawy’s $ 23 million loan facility supports this offer.
Immunity for economic instability?
These products have diversified the revenue streams of Nawy, claiming that the company claims to increase more than 50X in terms of dollars in the last four years, despite that Egyptian pounds have lost 69% of its value.
L. beltagi gave most of this growth to demand market for real estate as a defense against inflation and currency devaluation. While the currency crisis affected the local demand, the influx of migrant money helped to offset the drop.
As a result, profitable Nawy closed over $ 1.4 billion than $ 1.4 billion in 2020, with more than $ 38 million in 2020.
With fresh capital, Nawy plans to expand to North Africa and Middle East beyond Egypt, regularly emerging as the world’s most promising real estate markets. Nawy is targeting Morocco, Saudi Arabia and UAE as its next markets (for example in UAE, such as platforms Disgusting And the property finder already has strong traction.)
El Beltagi mentions that the company will buy small companies on the way. Recently, it acquired property management startup ROA and re -designed it as “Nawy Unlock”, expanding its product offerings.
The series A round, which is raised in two installments, will fund these schemes, which involves furthering product development and integrating AI in NEV processes, according to L. beltagi.
Other notable investors participating in the round include development partners’ Enclud Fund, E&A Capital, Endeavor Catalist, HOF Capital, March Capital Investments, Outlair, Plug and Play, Shoruke Partners, Venturek and Verod-Caple Africa Ventures.
“We are excited to support Nawy as they build a foundation for a modern, technology-powered real estate experience,” said the General Partner of Tidjane Deme, Partech. “His team has a deep market insight, in association with ambitious regional expansion plans and extraordinary execution, he is placed in a position as a clear prophet champion in Africa and the Middle East.”
