Saudi Arabia’s Ejari enables tenants to tackle rental challenges up front
Company provides flexible options amid a rise in housing demand, writes Fareed Rahman
evident in the sale prices and rents, which recorded notable growth of 7 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, in the third quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year.”
Ejari, which raised $1 million in funding last year with support from angel investors and other backers, aims to provide more services to customers, such as furnishing an apartment or providing moving services.
It also plans to expand its rent-now-pay-later platform to include the commercial, retail and industrial sectors.
It is also considering future regional expansion, but is currently focusing on Saudi Arabia as it is a “behemoth of a market”, with several opportunities for growth, Mr Al Shamsi says.
“Because of the inflow of people, there’s much more demand than supply that’s causing prices to go up.”
Government support for start-ups is “second to none on all levels”, he says.
The kingdom’s National Technology Development Programme supports the “entire lifetime of a start-up from ideation until being a unicorn”.
Start-ups that reach a valuation of $1 billion are called unicorns.
Under the Saudi techonology development programme, “when we started, they gave us a grant of $40,000 to build our product, to test the market with our products and then they provided us with free office space as well [as] three advisers: legal advisers, technical advisers, financial advisers, whose only job is to help you”, Mr Al Shamsi says.
The initiative is also supporting founders with a salary of $3,000 to $4,000 per month.
The start-up sector in Saudi Arabia has continued to grow over the past few years.
The kingdom has become the top market for venture capital funding in the Middle East and North Africa for the first time, attracting more than $1.38 billion of investment in 2023, according to a Magnitt report.
Saudi Arabia recorded a billion-dollar figure for the second straight year, it said.
“Even banks are coming up with their venture capital arms to support start-ups … this is a huge shift because banks usually finance traditional industries,” Mr Al Shamsi says.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Ejari
Based: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Founders: Yazeed Al Shamsi, Fahad Albedah, Mohammed Alkhelewy and Khalid Almunif
Sector: Property technology
Total funding: $1 million
Investors: Sanabil 500 Mena, Hambro Perks’ Oryx Fund and angel investors
Number of employees: 8