For decades, buying real estate in Egypt meant navigating the fragmented real estate market, relying on personal networks, dealing with committee-led brokers, and facing developers who focused on sales rather than meeting customer needs.
In 2019, Mostafa El Beltagy co-founded Nawy to bring transparency and efficiency to the market. Currently establishing itself as Africa’s largest proptech platform, Nawy has raised $52 million in Series A funding led by Africa-focused VC company Parttech Africa, examining a model that combines its asset list with mediation services.
The round, which also includes a $23 million debt loan from Egypt’s top bank, brings a total of $75 million, one of the biggest series, like African startups. In 2022, they gathered a $5 million seed round led by Egypt’s wealthiest family, Sawiris.
CEO Elbert Azzy’s journey to Proptech began with personal frustration. After working for several years in corporate jobs in multiple countries, a former Vodafone executive wanted to invest in Egyptian real estate. This is a market that many view as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation.
However, as he navigated the process of purchasing real estate, the lack of transparency and prevalence of biased advice became obvious issues.
“Except that mostly going to developers, there was no way to look at the market and understand what was there, except to pick up the brochure and ask salespeople questions. “In this area, everyone is encouraged to push you in some way.”
These challenges have led Elbertasy to build NAWY to help people buy their assets and sell, invest, raise funds and manage them. The model that combines property listing platforms with brokerage services remains a stark contrast in an industry with an agent-established offline relationship. The CEO launched the company with Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Mohamed Abou Ghanima and Aly Rafea.
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At first, Nawy had a hard time securing these lists. The developers were skeptical of the value of NAWY. Because it wasn’t big enough to drive traffic to their list. Meanwhile, the brokers viewed Nawi as a competitor.
To build trust, Nawy introduced immediate committee payments for advance payments to brokers who made their first transaction on the platform. This has changed sentiment and has seen more than 3,000 brokerage companies actively using NAWY partners (products for brokers), leading to the growth of word-of-mouth, accessed live inventory and flexible payments.
Plus, Cairo-based Proptech attracts over a million monthly visitors, with hundreds of developers competing for visibility. According to El Beltagy, around 150 developers cover most of Egypt’s new build market, worth around $30 billion based on 100,000 transactions per year.
Over the past few years, NAWY has expanded beyond listings and securities services, and has evolved into a full-stack real estate ecosystem. This includes Nawy Shares, a fractional-owned product that allows users to invest in real estate worth at least $500, allowing Egyptian middle-income population to use properties that have been on sale for a long time.
Additionally, NAWY has developed “Move Now Pay Later,” designed to allow users to purchase installment plans and financing options in a market where banks rarely offer loans for real estate purchases.
“The real estate market is very biased in the sense that most people are buying new builds rather than resale. We believe that enabling this product will cause a bit of a shift,” Elbert Azy said of the embedded financial products. “Mortgage packaging is different because there are very few mortgages here,” he added that Nawy’s $23 million debt facility supports the offer.
Immunity due to economic volatility?
These products diversify Nawy’s revenue stream, which the company claims has grown on dollar terms over 50 times over the past four years, despite the Egyptian pound losing 69% of its value.
El Beltagy has largely attributed to market demand for real estate as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation. The currency crisis affected local demand, but expatriate money inflows helped offset the decline.
As a result, the highly profitable NAWY closed in 2024 with a total commercial value (GMV) of over $1.4 billion, from $38 million in 2020.
With the fresh capital, Nawi plans to expand beyond Egypt to North Africa and the Middle East. The region is rapidly emerging as some of the most promising real estate markets in the world. Nawy targets Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as the next market (in the UAE, platforms like Huspy and Property Finder already have strong traction).
El Beltagy says the company will buy small businesses along the way. Recently, it has acquired a property management startup ROA and rebranded as “Nawy Unlock” and expanded its product offering.
According to El Beltagy, the Series A round, raised in the two tranches, will fund these plans, including advances in product development and AI integration throughout Nawy’s process.
Other notable investors participating in the round include Development Partners International’s NClude Fund, E&Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, HOF Capital, March Capital Investments, Outliers, Plag and Play, Shorooq Partners, Venturesouq, and Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures.
“We look forward to NAWY supporting Nawy as it laid the foundation for a modern, tech-driven real estate experience,” said Tidjane Deme, general partner at Parttech. “Their team has deep market insights, coupled with ambitious regional expansion plans and exceptional implementations. They position them as clear prop tech champions in Africa and the Middle East.”