Egypt’s Nawy, Africa’s Largest Proptech Company, Raises $52M in Series A Funding to Expand in the MENA Region

For many years, buying property in Egypt meant navigating a fragmented real estate market, relying on personal connections, dealing with commission-driven brokers, and encountering developers who prioritized sales over customer satisfaction.

In 2019, Mostafa El Beltagy, Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Mohamed Abou Ghanima, and Aly Rafea founded Nawy to improve market transparency and efficiency. Now emerging as Africa’s largest proptech platform, Nawy has raised $52 million in Series A funding, spearheaded by the Africa-focused VC firm Partech Africa. This funding affirms Nawy’s strategy of merging property listings with brokerage services.

The Series A funding round, which includes $23 million in debt financing from leading Egyptian banks, brings the total investment to $75 million, making it one of the largest Series A funding rounds for an African startup.

Co-founder and CEO El Beltagy turned to proptech out of personal frustration. After years in corporate roles in various countries, he wanted to invest in Egyptian real estate, a route many view as protection against inflation and currency depreciation.

However, during the buying process, a lack of transparency and partial advice posed significant challenges.

“I had no way to explore the market or grasp the available properties, other than visiting each developer, collecting brochures, and asking their sales staff, which was extremely inefficient,” the CEO recounted. “In this sector, incentives often lead you in different directions.”

These challenges motivated El Beltagy to create Nawy, aimed at assisting people in buying, selling, investing in, financing, and managing properties. Its innovative model, which combines a property listing platform with brokerage services, sets it apart in an industry often reliant on agents with entrenched, offline networks.

Making Real Estate Accessible

Initially, Nawy faced challenges in acquiring property listings. Developers were skeptical about Nawy’s ability to generate substantial traffic for their listings, while brokers viewed Nawy as competition.

To build trust, Nawy instituted immediate commission payments, funded upfront, to brokers completing their first transaction with the platform. This shifted perceptions and spurred word-of-mouth growth, resulting in over 3,000 brokerages actively using Nawy Partners (its brokerage platform), gaining access to live inventory and flexible payout options.

Moreover, the Cairo-based proptech firm attracts over a million monthly visitors, with numerous developers seeking visibility. Around 150 developers dominate the majority of Egypt’s new build market, valued at about $30 billion based on 100,000 annual transactions, as stated by El Beltagy.

In recent years, Nawy has extended its reach beyond listings and brokerage services, evolving into a comprehensive real estate ecosystem. This includes Nawy Shares, a fractional ownership program allowing users to invest in property with a minimum of $500, making real estate attainable for Egypt’s middle-income population, who were previously excluded.

Additionally, Nawy has launched a mortgage product, “Move Now Pay Later,” designed to assist users in purchasing through installment plans and financing in a market where banks rarely provide real estate loans.

“The real estate market is skewed, as most buyers are looking for new constructions rather than resale properties. We believe this product will catalyze some change,” El Beltagy noted. “It’s a reinvented mortgage since conventional mortgages are almost nonexistent here.” He also highlighted that Nawy’s $23 million debt facility supports this offering.

Immune to Economic Volatility?

These initiatives have diversified Nawy’s revenue streams, which the company claims have grown over 50 times in dollar terms over the past four years, even as the Egyptian pound devalued by 69%.

El Beltagy attributes much of this growth to the market’s demand for real estate as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation. While the currency crisis impacted local demand, the influx of remittances from expatriates helped cushion the downturn.

As a result, Nawy wrapped up 2024 with over $1.4 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), a significant leap from $38 million in 2020.

With the new funding, Nawy plans to extend its reach beyond Egypt into North Africa and the Middle East, regions emerging as promising global real estate markets. The company is eyeing Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE for its next projects (in the UAE, for instance, platforms like Huspy and Property Finder are already gaining substantial momentum).

El Beltagy also mentioned plans to acquire smaller firms along its growth path. Recently, it acquired the property management startup ROA and rebranded it as “Nawy Unlocked,” thereby broadening its product offering.

The Series A funding round, raised in two phases, will support these initiatives, including advancing product development and integrating AI across Nawy’s processes, according to El Beltagy.

Other notable investors in the round include 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 establish a modern, tech-driven real estate experience,” said Tidjane Deme, general partner at Partech. “Their team possesses in-depth market insights, paired with ambitious regional expansion plans and excellent execution, positioning them as the leading proptech firm in Africa and the Middle East.”