For decades, purchasing property in Egypt meant navigating a complex, fragmented real estate landscape marked by unreliable listings, commission-driven brokers, and developers primarily concerned with sales targets rather than customer satisfaction. Addressing these challenges head-on, entrepreneur Mostafa El Beltagy founded Nawy in 2019, a digital platform dedicated to providing transparency, ease of use, and efficiency across Egypt’s real estate market.
Positioning itself now as Africa’s largest proptech enterprise, Nawy recently secured a significant financial endorsement—a $52 million Series A funding round. This capital injection, led by the Africa-focused venture capital firm Partech Africa, is complemented by an additional $23 million debt facility provided by prominent Egyptian banking institutions. Together, these funds mark one of the largest Series A rounds recorded by an African startup, totaling $75 million, which underscores growing investor confidence in the region’s tech ventures. Nawy previously raised a $5 million seed round led by Egypt’s prominent Sawiris family in 2022.
El Beltagy, who transitioned into entrepreneurship following senior corporate roles at global companies including Vodafone, was driven by his personal frustration at Egypt’s notoriously opaque property-buying process. Seeking a straightforward investment in real estate—a popular hedge against inflation and currency volatility—he found the market riddled with inefficiencies, hidden biases, and conflicting broker incentives.
“I had no clear way to see what was actually available in the market, outside of visiting each developer individually, requesting brochures, and getting skewed information,” recalls El Beltagy. “This lack of transparency inspired us to create a unified marketplace providing truth, clarity, and ease.”
Joined by co-founders Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Mohamed Abou Ghanima, and Aly Rafea, El Beltagy built Nawy into a comprehensive real estate service platform. Initially, however, skepticism from developers reluctant to list properties on what they viewed as an unproven platform, as well as resistance from brokers who saw Nawy as competition, presented early hurdles. To overcome this, Nawy introduced the “Nawy Partners” program, a unique offering of immediate, upfront commission payments for brokers who facilitated their first deals through the platform. The strategy proved transformative, rapidly shifting industry sentiment and fueling strong word-of-mouth growth. Today, more than 3,000 local brokerages actively leverage the platform, benefiting from real-time inventories and flexible payment structures.
The company currently attracts over one million monthly visitors, showcasing properties from roughly 150 top developers, effectively covering most of Egypt’s $30 billion new-build sector. Further expanding its capabilities, Nawy has since evolved into a fully integrated real estate ecosystem. Notable innovations include “Nawy Shares,” a fractional ownership product enabling Egypt’s middle-income residents to invest in properties starting from as little as $500, and the company’s unique mortgage-style offering “Move Now Pay Later,” designed to enable home purchases through installment plans where traditional banking mortgages are scarce or nonexistent.
“The Egyptian property market is skewed towards new developments rather than resale properties,” El Beltagy explained. “We believe introducing accessible finance products like this will significantly alter consumer behavior.”
Amid challenging economic conditions—including a sharp depreciation of Egypt’s currency—Nawy has successfully carved out consistent growth. Over a four-year period, revenues increased in dollar terms more than fifty-fold, and by 2024, the firm recorded over $1.4 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), a staggering leap from $38 million in 2020. According to El Beltagy, a key factor has been the real estate sector’s status as a reliable hedge amid economic instability.
With substantial new resources available, Nawy now sets its sights beyond Egypt’s borders, targeting expansion into other significant MENA markets including Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, countries where the proptech sector shows robust growth projections. In pursuing these markets, the company plans strategic acquisitions—in fact, Nawy recently acquired property management startup ROA, and subsequently rebranded it as “Nawy Unlocked,” broadening its range of services even further.
The Series A investment will also funnel into technology enhancements, including expanded use of artificial intelligence to streamline operations and improve user experiences. Notable investors joining Partech in this funding round include Nclude Fund from Development Partners International, e& Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, HOF Capital, March Capital Investments, Outliers, Plug and Play, Shorooq Partners, VentureSouq, and Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures.
Tidjane Deme, General Partner at Partech, highlighted belief in Nawy’s strategy: “We’re proud to back Nawy as they reshape and modernize the real estate experience. Their team offers deep market knowledge, aggressive growth ambitions, and exceptional operational execution—making them the clear proptech leader in Africa and the Middle East.”
