IFC weighs equity investment in Egyptian proptech Nawy as North African interest deepens
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The International Finance Corporation is considering an equity investment in Nawy, the Egyptian property technology platform, building on its backing of Morocco's Yakeey as institutional interest in digitising North Africa's real estate markets grows.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group's private-sector investment arm, is considering an equity investment in Nawy Inc, an Egyptian proptech platform founded in 2016 that connects buyers, sellers, developers, brokers and investors across the real estate value chain, according to information reviewed by Launch Base Africa.
Nawy says it serves more than one million unique monthly users and supports roughly 1,000 active micro, small and medium-sized brokers. Its operations span a multi-listing service, Nawy Properties, and a partner platform for third-party brokers, Nawy Partners, layered with Nawy Now, an on-balance-sheet mortgage originator that offloads loans to banks through securitisation, Nawy Shares, a fractional-ownership platform, and Nawy Unlocked, a service financing renovation of idle or unfurnished rental units.
The company says it facilitated more than 60,000 property searches and supported $1.4 billion in cumulative transaction volume by the end of 2024, up from $38 million in 2020. It raised $75 million last year, split between $52 million in equity led by Partech Africa and $23 million in debt from local banks, one of the largest rounds recorded in Egypt's real estate technology sector.
A potential Nawy investment would add to an existing IFC position in Yakeey, a Moroccan proptech start-up that closed a $15 million Series A round, the largest of its kind in the kingdom and the IFC's first venture capital investment in Morocco. The corporation's growing footprint in the sector reflects a broader view that digitising property transactions can widen access to housing finance and formalise informal brokerage networks that dominate real estate dealing across the region.
Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority has simultaneously moved to bring digital property platforms under closer supervision. It has revised the financial thresholds that real estate companies must meet to convert into investment funds, replacing a requirement tied to the ratio of net equity to total assets with a flat minimum of EGP500 million ($9.7 million) in net equity, and has published a list of unlicensed platforms as part of a wider effort to close gaps in oversight.