Nawy, the Cairo-based proptech backed by e& Capital, has acquired a majority stake in Dubai’s SmartCrowd, marking its entry into the GCC market and furthering its goal of becoming the region’s dominant real estate technology platform.
The deal follows Nawy’s $52 million Series A announced earlier this year, part of a broader $75 million round to expand its services across property search, financing, brokerage, and fractional ownership. The round included participation from Partech, March Capital Investments, DPI via the Nclude Fund, Shorooq Partners, VentureSouq, Outliers, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, HOF Capital, and Plug and Play.
SmartCrowd, founded in 2018, was the first platform in MENA to receive regulatory approval for fractional property investment. It allows users to invest in income-generating Dubai properties for as little as $150, and has facilitated over $110 million in transactions and distributed $40 million in returns to date. The company claims to have exited more than 50 properties and reports a 30% average ROI on its Flip product, which renovates and resells undervalued assets within 15 months.
SmartCrowd had attracted roughly $3.6 million in disclosed venture funding, starting with a $600 k seed round in October 2018 led by Shorooq, with participation from Abaxx Technologies, 500 Startups and other regional angels. After scaling its marketplace, the company later closed a $3 million bridge / seed-extension round in June 2022, headed by Saudi VC Mad’a Investment Co. and joined by TriCap Investments, Amaana Capital (NRD Capital’s VC arm) and a consortium of Gulf angels, to bankroll expansion into Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
With a user base spanning over 130 countries, SmartCrowd gives Nawy immediate access to a cross-border investor audience, regulatory infrastructure via the DFSA, and operational experience in managing fractional real estate portfolios.
“This is a transformative transaction for SmartCrowd, joining forces with Nawy to build the region’s premier PropTech ecosystem,” said Riz Ahmed, CEO of SmartCrowd. “With strong alignment in vision and culture, this partnership accelerates our transition from startup to scale-up, making us the go-to platform for real estate investment in the Middle East.”
“SmartCrowd’s platform gives us a proven investment engine built on trust, performance, and regulatory strength,” added Nawy CEO Mostafa El-Beltagy. “The perfect match for Nawy’s tech-first approach to real estate. Together, we’re unlocking a new era of seamless property investment across MENA: data-driven, accessible, and built for today’s digital investor.”
The acquisition comes as the UAE’s real estate investment sector is projected to reach $33 billion by 2030, driven by tokenisation, fractional ownership, and rising cross-border demand.
Nawy previously acquired asset management and finishing company ROA, rebranding it as Nawy Unlocked. It has also rolled out Nawy Now for home financing, Nawy Shares for fractional ownership, and Nawy Partners as a B2B brokerage network. Combined with SmartCrowd’s infrastructure, Nawy aims to consolidate its position as a full-stack digital property platform across MENA.
The company reports more than 1 million monthly users and $3 billion in gross merchandise value to date.
