- Nawy has acquired a majority stake in SmartCrowd, Dubai’s first regulated fractional real estate investment platform, marking its official entry into the GCC market.
- This acquisition follows Nawy’s successful $52 million Series A funding round, enhancing its financial strength and regional expansion capabilities.
- Nawy’s ecosystem now spans real estate financing, brokerage, fractional ownership, and asset enhancement, creating a comprehensive, tech-driven solution for the MENA region, with SmartCrowd having facilitated over $110 million in real estate deals.
Nawy, the leading Egyptian PropTech company and Africa’s largest PropTech platform, backed by e& and Shorooq, today announced its acquisition of a majority stake in SmartCrowd, the UAE’s first regulated fractional real estate investment platform, licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. This strategic acquisition marks Nawy’s official entry into the Gulf markets and significantly bolsters its position as a dominant regional PropTech powerhouse.
This move reinforces Nawy’s ambition to become the leading PropTech name across the Middle East and Africa, accelerating its regional expansion with the support of one of the sector’s largest funding rounds. The acquisition followed a Series A funding round valued at $52 million, with participation from a stellar lineup of leading global investors. These include e& Capital (the investment arm of e& group), Partech, March Capital Investments (MCI), Endeavor Catalyst, Development Partners International (DPI), Nclude Fund, Shorooq, VentureSouq, Outliers, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), HOF Capital, and Plug and Play.
This funding is part of a total investment exceeding $75 million, earmarked to accelerate Nawy’s growth across multiple segments within the digital real estate ecosystem, including smart property listings, mortgage financing, real estate brokerage services, and fractional ownership models.
Earlier this year, Cairo-based Nawy acquired ROA, a startup specializing in asset management and home furnishing, relaunching it as Nawy Unlocked. This entity now forms a cornerstone of its anticipated comprehensive real estate application. With the addition of Dubai-based SmartCrowd to Nawy’s ecosystem, the company solidifies a robust and strategic presence in the GCC market. Established in 2018, SmartCrowd pioneered the concept of fractional real estate investment in Dubai, allowing users to co-own premium income-generating properties starting from just $150. To date, the platform has facilitated over $110 million in real estate deals, distributing more than $40 million in rental returns and capital gains to investors.
SmartCrowd currently serves investors from over 130 countries worldwide and, as of June 2025, has successfully exited over 50 real estate deals, cementing its position as a trusted platform delivering leading and consistent returns in the real estate market. One of SmartCrowd’s standout products is “Flip,” which involves acquiring undervalued real estate assets, professionally renovating them, and then reselling them within a period not exceeding 15 months, achieving an average return on investment of 30% as of June 2025.
The real estate investment sector in the UAE is projected to reach approximately $33 billion by 2030, driven by the accelerated adoption of real estate tokenization, fractional ownership models, and increased cross-border investor participation. This transformation represents a pivotal launchpad for Nawy’s expansion plans in the region, at a time when the pace of innovation within the GCC real estate market is rapidly accelerating.
Commenting on the acquisition, Rize Ahmed, CEO of SmartCrowd, stated: “This deal represents a true turning point in SmartCrowd’s journey. By joining the Nawy ecosystem, we transition from a startup to a scalable company through a partnership built on a shared vision and an integrated work culture – paving the way for us to become the region’s premier real estate investment platform.”
Mostafa El Beltagy, CEO of Nawy, added: “SmartCrowd offers a trusted investment engine, combining transparency, high performance, and full commitment to regulatory standards. These principles align perfectly with Nawy’s vision, which places technology at the heart of the real estate market. Together, we are launching a new phase of real estate investment in the region – data-driven, accessible, and designed to match the lifestyle of investors who prefer smart access and analysis-based decisions.”
Nawy’s expanding ecosystem also includes a range of integrated solutions addressing various aspects of real estate investment: “Nawy Now” for home financing, “Nawy Shares” as a fractional ownership platform, “Nawy Unlocked” for asset development and furnishing services, and “Nawy Partners” for its B2B real estate brokerage network.
With SmartCrowd’s integration, the group now offers a comprehensive digital real estate platform, enabling users to buy, manage, and generate returns from properties in key real estate markets across the Middle East and North Africa.
Nawy has surpassed one million monthly users, with over $3 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) across its platform, further solidifying its position as a true transformational force in the Middle East and Africa’s PropTech landscape.
العربية (Arabic) To read the article in Arabic, click here
