Egypt’s Nawy Acquires Dubai’s SmartCrowd, Expands into GCC Prop-tech Market

Egypt’s Nawy acquires Dubai’s SmartCrowd, marking a big step as it expands into the GCC prop-tech market. This move is a major milestone for the Egyptian prop-tech startup, which started just a few years ago and has quickly become a leader in Africa’s real estate technology scene.

Nawy was founded in 2019 by Mohamed Abou Ghanima, Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Aly Rafea, and Mostafa El-Beltagy. The company began as a simple online platform where people could search for houses using filters like price, size, and location. Over time, Nawy grew fast, adding new services and products. Today, it is Africa’s largest real estate technology company, offering a wide range of services. These include Nawy Now, which allows people to move into a home and pay later with special mortgage financing, Nawy Shares for fractional ownership, Nawy Unlocked for property finishing and asset management, and Nawy Partners, which helps real estate brokers with advanced tools and better commissions.

In May, Nawy announced it had raised $75 million in debt and equity funding to help it grow across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The company’s latest move, Nawy acquires SmartCrowd, shows how it is using this funding to expand into new markets, especially the fast-growing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

Egypt’s Nawy Acquires Dubai’s SmartCrowd

SmartCrowd, based in Dubai, is a platform that lets people invest in real estate by owning small shares of properties. This is called fractional property investment. SmartCrowd is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), which gives investors extra confidence that the platform is safe and trustworthy. Since its launch in 2018, SmartCrowd has helped users invest in more than $110 million worth of property and has paid out over $40 million in returns to investors. People from over 130 countries have used SmartCrowd, making it a truly global platform.

By acquiring Dubai’s SmartCrowd, Nawy is not just entering the GCC prop-tech market, it is also adding new features to its business. Now, Nawy’s ecosystem includes everything from home financing and brokerage to fractional ownership and asset management. This means customers in the MENA region can find, buy, invest in, and manage real estate, all in one place.

The leaders of both companies are excited about the deal. Mostafa El-Beltagy, CEO of Nawy, said, “SmartCrowd’s platform gives us a proven investment engine built on trust, performance, and regulatory strength. 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.” Riz Ahmed, CEO of SmartCrowd, also called the deal “transformative,” saying it will help SmartCrowd grow from a startup into a scale-up and become the go-to platform for real estate investment in the Middle East.

The acquisition comes at a time when the real estate sector in the UAE and the wider GCC is booming. Experts predict that the UAE’s real estate investment sector could reach $33 billion by 2030, driven by new trends like tokenization, fractional ownership, and more cross-border investment. By joining forces, Nawy and SmartCrowd are well positioned to take advantage of these trends and offer new opportunities to investors across the region.

Egypt’s Nawy acquires Dubai’s SmartCrowd and expands into the GCC prop-tech market, creating a powerful new player in the region’s real estate technology space. With its expanded platform and strong backing, Nawy is set to make property investment easier, safer, and more accessible for people across the Middle East and Africa.

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