Saudi startup Ejari plans to scale as demand grows

19/05/2025 03:28 AST

Property tech startup Ejari aims to build a full-service real estate "super app" as it positions itself at the center of Saudi Arabia's rapidly digitizing housing market with its rent-now, pay-later model.

The company, founded in 2022, is moving beyond flexible rental payments to offer furnishing, maintenance, and relocation services through integrated third-party partnerships.

In an interview with Arab News, CEO Yazeed Al-Shamsi said Ejari's approach is reshaping the renter experience by offering a streamlined, digital alternative to the country's traditional leasing system, where tenants are typically required to pay six or 12 months upfront.

Al-Shamsi said the platform is now preparing to widen its offering beyond residential rentals, targeting commercial and industrial leases as part of a broader plan to become a real estate super app.

He told Arab News that the idea for Ejari was sparked by his personal experience as a student in the UK, where he struggled with upfront rental payments demanded by landlords.

"That was the first time I ever struggled with rent," Al-Shamsi said. "The solution was that an insurance company would come in and guarantee your rent."

After returning to Saudi Arabia, and facing similar rigid payment structures in the local market, he and his co-founders set out to address the challenge head-on.

Ejari's core business model centers on leasing properties from landlords in bulk payments, then subleasing them to tenants through installment plans.

"We pivoted six to seven times before landing on our current model, which allows us to lease the property from the landlord with a bulk payment and then lease it back in installments to tenants with a higher price," Al-Shamsi said.

This structure, he added, creates a win-win dynamic: landlords receive their payments upfront, while tenants benefit from affordable monthly payments.

The platform, which currently operates in 17 cities across eight regions in Saudi Arabia, is part of a growing cohort of startups targeting financial accessibility in the real estate market.

In its first year, Ejari reported generating over $30 million in service demand and has since seen that figure rise above $50 million, all with minimal marketing investment.

"This is off a very modest marketing spend of probably just over a hundred thousand dollars," Al-Shamsi said.

Despite being in operation for less than two years, Ejari is already seeing strong financial indicators.

"Our revenues are very healthy. Our loan book is very healthy. We've grown probably over 10 times between 2023 and 2024," Al-Shamsi stated, noting further growth early in 2025. Still, he acknowledged the challenges in achieving profitability.

"We're a long way from profitability, but it is something that we've been keeping on top of mind. The current phase is growth."

Al-Shamsi emphasized Ejari's differentiated approach compared to traditional financing companies.

"Banks, financing companies - they're doing 20, 30, 40 things at one time," he said. "Versus us, where we're just trying to do one thing. And as soon as we perfect it, we can then start doing other things."

The vision for Ejari extends well beyond rent facilitation. The company's long-term strategy is to become a real estate super app, providing a full suite of services throughout the customer lifecycle.

"Today, we're helping the customer with payment facilitation. The customer moves into the apartment - it's an empty apartment. We help them furnish it. They live in it. A light bulb goes off - we help them fix it. Tomorrow they want to move - we offer a button they hit, then a team comes and helps them move," Al-Shamsi explained.

The company aims to enable this ecosystem through partnerships with existing service providers, integrating their offerings into Ejari's platform.

The company is also expanding its focus to include commercial segments such as offices, shops, malls, and even industrial spaces later this year.

"The plan is to start activating different types of rent in the offices, shops, malls, as well as the industrial sector," Al-Shamsi said, adding that the company balances growth with operational focus to ensure it doesn't "have our efforts captured around too many things, then the value of that doesn't become additive."

To drive its customer acquisition strategy, Ejari is leveraging real estate marketplaces. Al-Shamsi cited an ongoing partnership with a platform he described as "the local version of Property Finder in Dubai," which has an 80 percent market share and 3 million unique monthly visitors.

Ejari's recent $14.65 million seed round reflects growing investor interest in Saudi Arabia's maturing proptech sector.

Alongside Partners for Growth, BECO Capital, and Alinma Pay, other investors included Rua Ventures, anb seed, Vision Ventures, and Aqar platform.

The round, held in October, comprised both equity and debt, with the latter provided by California-based PFG.

The capital will be used to enhance its core technology platform, scale team capabilities, and expand into value-added services.

Looking ahead, Al-Shamsi said the company's immediate focus for the first half of 2025 is to deepen market penetration and build internal capacity.

"The focus remains on the current product in a very big way," he said. "Growing the team, building capabilities, building the technical capabilities that we need to be able to expand to whatever we want to."

While the company's default rates remain high - hovering at 13 percent to 15 percent - Al-Shamsi appeared undeterred, stating that this was due to a planned and carefully executed strategy to test the market.

"But again, when we started, we thought that this play would be mainly in the major cities. But surprisingly, the market takes you where it wants to go. We have demands from small villages, small cities in the north and south and east."

With demand increasing from both urban and rural markets and a substantial seed round now secured, Ejari is preparing to consolidate its position in Saudi Arabia's evolving rental economy.

Al-Shamsi expects revenue growth to remain strong through 2025, forecasting another significant jump. "I'd say close to that 10 times figure. But maybe 8 or 7 times."

Arab News