Egypt-Based Nawy Bags US$75 Million To Expand Into UAE, KSA

Egypt-based proptech startup Nawy has secured US$75 million in a combined equity and debt funding round to drive its regional expansion as well as transform its real estate platform through an artificial intelligence (AI)-first strategy.  

The equity round was led by France-based tech investment firm Partech with participation from investors like UAE-based e& Capital, US-based March Capital Investments, Nigeria-based Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, US-based Endeavor Catalyst, UK-based DPI Venture Capital (through Egypt’s Nclude Fund), UAE-based VentureSouq, KSA-based Outliers, New York-based HOF Capital, California-based Plug and Play, and Abu Dhabi-based Shorooq. The debt financing was raised from several of Egypt’s largest banks, and it will support the growth of Nawy’s mortgage arm, including its “move now, pay later” service, Nawy Now. 

Co-founded by Mostafa El-Beltagy, Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Mohamed Abou Ghanima, and Aly Rafea in Egypt in 2019, Nawy has grown from a property listings site to a multi-vertical ecosystem covering buying, selling, financing, investing, and property management. In 2024 alone, Nawy generated over $1.4 billion in gross merchandise value, with its platform surpassing one million monthly users. Over the past four years, the company’s revenue (in American dollars) has multiplied more than fifty-fold—despite a 69 percent devaluation of the Egyptian pound. 

In a conversation with Inc. Arabia, El-Beltagy, co-founder and CEO, Nawy, noted how building in Africa has presented his enterprise with a rare strategic edge—one rooted in timing and perspective. "One of the great advantages of building from scratch in Africa is the ability to observe how other markets have evolved before you even begin. This gives you the opportunity to create something significantly better than many American or European counterparts, as you can learn from their mistakes and successes and build accordingly. Even more importantly, in mature global markets, you often find multiple players each dominating a narrow niche. In contrast, to build something truly large and impactful in Africa, you often need to combine multiple business lines—generating powerful synergies as a result,” he explained to us. 

“In that sense, I believe the African ecosystem is more likely to produce companies like Nawy—businesses with both breadth and depth across several verticals,” El-Beltagy added. “Meanwhile, larger GCC markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are more likely to resemble the US or Europe, given the presence of already well-established players in many of those niches.” 

This regional nuance plays into Nawy’s expansion strategy, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE identified as primary markets for growth. “Given their maturity, our go-to-market strategy will be to concentrate on a single business line where we believe we can deliver the most value,” El-Beltagy said. “We will then pursue one of two paths: either acquiring a smaller player in that space or building the operation ourselves from the ground up." 

Beyond geographic expansion, AI is set to transform Nawy at its core. But for El-Beltagy, the company’s AI ambitions go far beyond optimization—they involve a fundamental rethink of how real estate operates. “Our approach to AI is not to simply embed it into our existing operations—it’s to completely rethink the business from an AI-first perspective,” he said. “This shift impacts every aspect of the company: from customer-facing products to internal systems, organizational structure, and even job roles. Everything will change.” 

Rather than treating AI as just another feature, Nawy intends to reimagine its entire workflow and decision-making processes through AI-powered tools. “That mindset is similar to how incumbent businesses responded to digital disruption—by merely digitizing existing processes instead of reimagining them,” El-Beltagy explained. “The real challenge is doing all this without losing momentum. It’s a bit like performing open-heart surgery while running. But we’re up for it.” 

As the company scales, El-Beltagy offered a crucial lesson for proptech founders in emerging markets: don’t just build a product—build the rails. 

“In emerging markets, owning just one step of the customer journey isn’t enough,” El-Beltagy explained. “Much of what you would typically rely on—from data sourcing to navigating regulated or licensed processes—simply doesn’t exist. Entrepreneurs have to pave their own path.” 

He added, “One key piece of advice: build a solid level of maturity in one business line before expanding into the next. This not only allows you to unlock synergies from adjacent areas, but also helps reduce execution risk when entering new verticals.” 

Pictured in the lead image is Nawy's team. Image courtesy Nawy.