Proptech startup Nawy has raised an undisclosed investment in a bridge funding round led by the Sawiris family office, Nawy co-founder and chief business development officer Ahmed Rafea told Enterprise. The latest investment means the company has now raised USD 5 mn to date after closing an undisclosed seed round last year, also led by the Sawiris family office with participation from angel investors including Etisalat Group CEO Hatem Dowidar.

About the company: Nawy is a real estate search engine that also offers property financing via its brokerage arm. Since launching in 2016, the firm has helped more than 60k people find homes and more than USD 200 mn worth of properties have been sold via its website, according to a company statement (pdf). Nawy saw its revenues grow 5.4x during 2021, Rafea told us.

The money will go towards new staff + new services: The company will use the funding to launch new marketing campaigns, add to its 200-strong headcount to expand its tech and products teams, and explore adding new services to its platform. “We are studying the long- and short-term rentals market as well as property management services,” Rafea said. “We want to facilitate and refresh the secondary market which is very slow compared to new properties.”

It’s also looking outside of Egypt: The company is planning to expand to several markets outside of Egypt. “We’re thinking of the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We’re also considering South Africa. We haven’t taken a decision yet, but these are the countries that we’re planning to open in,” Rafea said.