STAKE, a Dubai-based digital platform for real estate investment, has raised US$14 million from investors, including Saudi Aramco’s venture capital arm and an Abu Dubai sovereign wealth fund.
The platform secured funds from Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures, Mubadala Investment Co, as well as US-based private investing platform Republic. The Series A round was led by Middle East Venture Partners, said a statement.
The startup declined to give its valuation.
Using the fractional-ownership model, Stake facilitates property investments starting at 500 dirhams (US$136). It has over 500,000 users – half of whom are outside the United Arab Emirates, it said in a statement.
The firm will use part of the proceeds to enter Saudi Arabia. It plans to become the first platform to allow individuals outside the kingdom to invest in the real estate market there.
There are “huge tailwinds from pent-up demand from the local population and from the opening up to foreign ownership,” co-founder Manar Mahmassani told Bloomberg. Stake plans to triple its headcount in the kingdom to 15 by the end of the year, he said.
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Since its launch in 2021, the startup has raised US$13 million from seed and pre-Series A funding. So far, it has bought over 200 properties worth 355 million dirhams, the statement said.
Dubai’s real estate market has been booming, aided by an influx of wealthy people from around the world. Average apartment prices in the emirate increased 20.4 per cent between January and March, said a May report from CBRE Group Inc.
Over in Saudi Arabia, which is pursuing a multitrillion-dollar economic transformation, average apartment prices in Riyadh rose 8.4 per cent in the same period, said CBRE. BLOOMBERG
