Egyptian prop-tech leader Nawy has extended its footprint into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market by acquiring a majority stake in Dubai-based SmartCrowd, a DFSA-regulated platform specializing in fractional property investment.
Founded in 2019 by Mohamed Abou Ghanima, Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Aly Rafea, and Mostafa El-Beltagy, Nawy initially launched as a property listings platform enabling users to search for homes using customizable filters such as size, price, and location. Since then, it has grown into Africa’s largest real estate technology company, expanding its portfolio with offerings like Nawy Now (a “Move Now, Pay Later” mortgage financing service), Nawy Shares (fractional ownership), Nawy Unlocked (property finishing and asset management), and Nawy Partners (brokerage empowerment through tech and sales tools).
In May 2025, Nawy raised US$75 million in debt and equity funding to accelerate expansion across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The acquisition of SmartCrowd—launched in 2018 and credited with facilitating US$110 million in property transactions and distributing over US$40 million in returns—marks its strategic entry into the GCC.
The acquisition bolsters Nawy’s ecosystem to include comprehensive services spanning home financing, brokerage, fractional ownership, and asset enhancement, delivering a full-stack prop-tech solution tailored for MENA markets.
Mostafa El-Beltagy, CEO of Nawy, remarked, “SmartCrowd’s platform provides a trusted, high-performance investment engine with strong regulatory backing—an ideal complement to Nawy’s tech-first real estate approach. Together, we’re ushering in a new era of seamless, data-driven property investment that is accessible and designed for today’s digital investor across the MENA region.”
