Sakneen, a Cairo-based property tech startup, has raised US$1.1 million in a seed round led by Algebra Ventures, with Sarwa Capital and Foundation Ventures also participating.

In addition to Hem + Spire, a real estate private equity firm based in the United States, Nakhla VC, a Saudi investment firm, and angel investors from Google, BlackRock, and McKinsey, the round featured angel investors from Google, BlackRock, and McKinsey.

Sakneen, a property platform founded by Ramy Khorshed and Hussein El Kheshen in late 2019, makes buying and selling homes easier. Users looking to purchase a home can use the website to search through various options and filter them based on property type, location, price range, finishing type, delivery date, and a few other factors.

The startup was part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch, which graduated with a virtual demo day earlier this year. As part of the program, it secured $150,000 from Y Combinator.

Since graduating from the accelerator, it certainly has made significant progress. It has established an internal inventory management system to aggregate and manage listings in addition to its website for property purchasers. It also developed an agent-facing app for iOS and Android.

“With the latest strategic investment from Sarwa Capital, the publicly listed financing group behind Contact Cars & Contact Financing, we have firm backing by industry leaders and are well-positioned to launch products across different vertical and delight our customers with new and unique experiences,” Ramy Khorshed, CEO & Co-Founder of Sakneen.

“It’s a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in a region with strong demographics and growth. Also, the very low technology penetration and lack of publicly accessible data create a huge information asymmetry. Early adopters of data-driven tools have a tremendous opportunity and I think that’s what our backers are excited to help us deliver on.”

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