Turning challenges into opportunities

We shine the spotlight on a challenger portal that's making its presence felt in the proptech sector and the journey of a Kuwaiti startup that is disrupting the toy and gifting segment

Jean-Pierre Mondalek, CEO, houza What inspired you to join houza after a successful career working for international giants such as Uber, Amazon, OLX, and so on?

After my initial career of advising companies and investing in successful tech ventures in the US and Europe, I returned to the UAE in 2012 and got my first taste of entrepreneurship by starting a business in the automotive sector. While I failed, I’m proud of the great lessons I learned along the way that I carried forward with me in my career. Prior to launching Uber in the UAE, I helped raise $3.5m in seed capital for tech startups in emerging markets, which exposed me to inspiring entrepreneurs and the problems they were trying to solve for their customers.

After nearly two decades of corporate work experience spanning from mergers and acquisitions and investments, to operations and marketing, all within the tech industry, I felt that I was finally prepared to pivot and add tangible value to an early-stage venture.

I chose to join houza as it’s rare to get an opportunity to work with people you know and trust, and work on problems that resonate with you. I’m glad to be making my entrepreneurial comeback with the ‘challenger portal’ as my philosophy of challenging the status quo is mirrored by houza’s ethos and its value proposition.

What is the core concept of houza?

Off the back of deep-rooted consumer pain points, our three core pillars address these head on: a quality search experience, unique data insights to empower seekers and access to first-to-market homes only on houza.

We onboard only the best real estate agencies with quality, unique listings and a superior customer experience. We maintain a high bar for verified properties so we know the agents have access to the listed unit. We surface just enough transaction data to property seekers at the right point in their journey to allow them to understand market pricing and activity. Finally, we host a selection of exclusive homes on houza you can’t find anywhere else.

For real estate agencies, we also stand by quality, allowing agencies to rank highest on houza for quality, unique content, opposed to it being a bidding war between agents to feature highest on search results. We believe in giving everyone a fair chance for exposure. If you’re at the top of your game, you will be at the top of our page.

What are some of the challenges that houza faces as a challenger portal?

As a startup, we have the uphill challenge of becoming top of mind with property agents and seekers in a market which already has strong incumbents that have been operating for multiple real estate cycles in the UAE. While houza is strengthening its footing in the industry, our ‘challenger’ position brings its own set of objections as well. This skepticism is expected whenever trying to challenge the status quo.

Our focus is to leverage our experience in online classifieds and marketplaces to build products that solve recurring problems faced by both of these critical

stakeholders. We aim to tell that story through thoughtful brand marketing and gain more awareness and consideration. Since our founding in 2020, we have raised a total of $5.5m (with the most recent round held in Q2 this year) from the largest UAE real estate agencies, including Allsopp & Allsopp, Betterhomes and Driven Properties. With this initial raise, we have been investing in our product, tech, and sales efforts.

What are your growth plans for houza?

Now that we are seeing a healthy lead traction from more than 250 agencies listed on houza, we will look to raise more capital to continue scaling our product and tech.

Our plan is to empower real estate agents, build houza’s brand to become top of mind, and hire the best talent in the industry to join our mission and take houza to new heights.

Globally, the big data and analytics market is worth $274bn. The rapid expansion of mobile data, cloud computing, machine learning, and internet of things (IoT) will continue to power the surge in big data spending, with the global Big Data market projected to generate $103bn in revenue by 2027.

Popular opinion might suggest that data analysis is only used by big organisations that deal with a large amount of data every day, however, the benefits of data analysis extend to smaller businesses that need insights to boost their growth. Sometimes, the challenges experienced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are in a way similar to those faced by large corporates. As such, SMEs would wonder if a data analysis strategy is even worth the investment. The simple answer is yes. It is a much-needed tool that offers numerous benefits, ranging from helping the company save time and money to gaining realtime insights and more. Studies have also suggested that data analysis could increase workplace productivity.

Here are some of the key ways in which data analytics can assist SMEs:

01. ALLOW REAL-TIME INTERACTIONS

Data analysis enables the use of details and information in real-time. This would not only help companies predict performance or outcomes, but also allow them to deal with current events and developments. For example, if a product is not as popular among consumers, the company could use the findings provided by a data analytics system to stop production. These details can be crucial for SMEs because it can help eliminate ballooning costs and ineffective solutions that hamper the company’s growth.

02. HELP SAVE TIME AND MONEY

With fewer resources and employees handling multiple responsibilities, SMEs need to use tools that enable them to use time effectively. Employing machine learning, automating processes and mapping insights for business strategy can all increase the efficiency of a business. Not only time, but saving money is also a big priority for small business owners. Small businesses can easily access insights through free software, open-source tools and inexpensive solutions designed exclusively for them. These tools can help them identify opportunities quickly and easily, while helping them reduce costs and making data-driven decisions to grow the business.

03. USE DATA TO DRIVE SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS

With smaller budgets for marketing, SMEs need to be careful about where and how much they are spending. Targeted marketing campaigns are especially useful to them. Data analysis can help reveal and unlock marketing insights so that such campaigns are not only effective, but also reach a wider audience even in newer markets. For example, a small business owner might discover a new demographic or one that seemed irrelevant. There are various online tools that help understand who your customers are, and what they are searching for.

04. PERSONALISED EXPERIENCES

Consumers want more personalised and relevant experiences, and such experiences are difficult for small businesses to provide. Bigger conglomerates can do it easily because they have the necessary resources and a large amount of data to operate with. However, SMEs can avail this opportunity through realtime insights and structured data extraction that analysis systems provide to serve their customers.

05. SOLVE ERRORS

One of the greatest achievements of data analytics is reducing or eliminating errors, especially those made with data input and management. This is just a matter of looking at any given information in different ways and trying to identify what is happening. For example, your system might auto correct information, and in doing so provide erroneous information. An intensive analysis can help business owners understand what is going wrong, where, and, at which stage.

THE DATA MARKET IS PROJECTED TO GENERATE $103BN IN REVENUE BY 2027