RIYADH: Dubai-based real estate platform Stake is targeting the Saudi market after signing a strategic partnership agreement with MBC Group, its founders have told Arab News.
Stake is a fintech that allows anyone from anywhere in the world to buy property in Dubai in under three minutes, making it the Deliveroo of real estate, according to one of the people behind the company, Rami Tabbara.
The firm’s deal with media conglomerate MBC will allow it to grow thanks to the access to digital platforms, TV channels, events, adverts, and interviews.
Speaking to Arab News, Manar Mahmassani, Stake’s other co-founder said: “Saudi Arabia is going to be a key market for us to enter and having the partnership with MBC is going to put us on the front.”
Tabbara added: “The partnership also offers MBC the opportunity to invest in future funding rounds, giving them an entry into a platform that will be growing regionally and hopefully globally.”
Launched in late 2020, Stake is known for being the world’s first Shariah-certified property investment platform. It has gained over 17,000 users and $10 million in assets under management while seeing a monthly average growth of 27 percent.
“Just like you would order something on Amazon or Deliveroo or Hungerstation in Saudi, you can go onto our app, choose a property, upload your passport proof of address and own a piece of property in under three minutes,” Tabbara explained.
The partnership with MBC began after Stake closed a seed round in June, 2021.
“It was a $4 million seed round that we announced in the press and we were very lucky enough to have an amazing gentleman out of MBC reach out to us, the business resonated with him and obviously his management,” Tabbara said in the interview.
He was excited to see MBC was interested in the startup but initially was not able figure out how it would be beneficial for both parties.
“The managing director, Fadel Zahreddine, just went back and forth asking, ‘How can we structure this?’ And we did. We sat down and realized that there’s a huge mutually beneficial relationship of having both of us come to a deal together,” Tabbara added.
Saudi Arabia is going to be a key market for us to enter and having the partnership with MBC is going to put us on the front
Manar Mahmassani, Stake’s co-founder
The deal will support Stake’s expansion by serving a greater number of property investors as it grows in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and then the United Kingdom.
With plans of expansion globally, Mahmassani said: “MBC is going to be a high strategic value for us to enter Egypt where there’s a massive population.”
Mahmassani went on to add that, in the past year, Stake has been focusing on tech development operations and will roll out a mobile app that will give a “world-class investment experience.”
“The MENA region is made up of 400 million people who save an estimated amount of $500 billion a year that we can target through MBC with their leading viewership in the region,” Mahmassani told Arab News.
