Egypt-based real-estate technology firm Nawy has taken a decisive step into the Gulf market by acquiring a majority stake in Dubai-headquartered SmartCrowd, the first platform in the region to secure regulatory approval for fractional property investment. The deal, announced days after Nawy closed a US$52 million Series A round, signals the Cairo company’s ambition to build a pan-regional “super-app” that covers every major slice of the property value chain.
Building a Full-Stack Ecosystem
Founded in 2016, Nawy started as a digital property-listing marketplace for Egypt’s new-build developments. Over the past 18 months, CEO Mostafa El-Beltagy and his team have aggressively diversified. The company now offers mortgage brokerage (Nawy Now), asset enhancement and finishing services (Nawy Unlocked), fractional ownership (Nawy Shares), and a B2B broker network (Nawy Partners). SmartCrowd’s addition completes what El-Beltagy calls a “full-stack proptech experience” that lets users search, finance, co-own, manage, and ultimately flip or rent out property— all inside a single, data-driven platform.
Why SmartCrowd?
Launched in 2018 by CEO Riz Ahmed, SmartCrowd was the first firm to receive a DFSA licence for fractional real-estate investment in Dubai’s International Financial Centre. From as little as US$150, investors can buy digital shares in curated, income-generating apartments and villas. To date, the platform has facilitated US$110 million in property transactions, returned more than US$40 million in rental income and capital gains, and exited over 50 properties with investors from 130 countries. Its flagship product, Flip, acquires undervalued assets, renovates them, and resells within 15 months, delivering an average 30 percent ROI as of June 2025.
For Nawy, SmartCrowd provides a battle-tested investment engine anchored in strong governance and performance. “SmartCrowd’s platform gives us a proven, regulated foundation; it is the perfect match for our tech-first approach,” El-Beltagy said. Ahmed added that joining forces with Nawy will accelerate SmartCrowd’s shift “from start-up to scale-up” and help cement its status as the Middle East’s go-to property investment marketplace.
Fuelled by Fresh Capital
The acquisition follows Nawy’s US$52 million Series A round—part of a larger US$75 million funding package aimed at pan-regional expansion. The raise was led by e& Capital and drew participation from a broad mix of global and regional investors, including Partech, DPI via Nclude Fund, Shorooq, VentureSouq, Outliers, and Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures. Earlier this year Nawy also bought Cairo asset-management start-up ROA, rebranding it Nawy Unlocked and embedding finishing and renovation into its upcoming “property super-app.”
A Market Ripe for Tokenisation
Analysts expect the UAE’s real-estate investment market to reach US$33 billion by 2030, driven by tokenisation, fractional-ownership platforms, and rising cross-border participation. By planting its flag in Dubai, Nawy gains immediate access to a jurisdiction where both retail and institutional investors are comfortable deploying capital into digitised bricks-and-mortar assets.
Roadmap: MENA and Beyond
With one million monthly users and US$3 billion in gross merchandise value already flowing through its Egyptian operations, Nawy intends to replicate its integrated model across key Gulf Cooperation Council states. The company believes the combined offering of search, finance, co-investment, and asset enhancement will lower barriers to property ownership and unlock vast pools of dormant capital in the region.
“In a continent where real-estate transactions are still fragmented and opaque, we’re building the rails for a seamless, transparent, and inclusive investment journey,” El-Beltagy said. If execution matches ambition, Nawy may soon stand alongside the likes of Property Finder and Bayut-Dubizzle as a defining player in MENA’s rapidly evolving proptech landscape.
