The Rise of Huspy: A Proptech Pioneer in the UAE and Beyond
In 2020, if you walked into a bank in Dubai to apply for a mortgage, you might have found yourself buried in paperwork or faced unexpected price discrepancies when looking at property listings. These challenges inspired Jad Antoun to create Huspy, a startup that has transformed how people in the UAE buy homes by introducing digital tools to streamline the process.
Over the past five years, Huspy has grown into one of the largest proptech companies in the UAE. It has expanded its operations to Spain, offering digital solutions for finding homes and securing mortgages. Recently, Huspy closed a $59 million Series B funding round, aimed at scaling its operations across the Middle East and expanding further into Europe. This round was led by existing investors Balderton Capital and Peak XV.
The company had previously raised over $40 million in a Series A round, along with an extension from a range of top global investors, including Balderton Capital, Founders Fund, and Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India & SEA). Additional backers include ExBorder Partners, Turmeric Capital, BY Ventures, Dara Management, and KE Partners. The new capital will support Huspy’s growth in the UAE and Spain, as well as its upcoming launch in Saudi Arabia.
This investment is particularly significant given the challenges facing the proptech sector in recent years. Companies like Opendoor and Compass have struggled with maintaining valuations and profitability amid rising U.S. interest rates. Many startups have also burned through cash and faced difficulties in sustaining operations.
Huspy, however, has managed to build a repeatable and efficient model for entering new markets. According to Rana Yared, general partner at Balderton Capital, “Huspy has built a repeatable and efficient playbook for city launches, and their pace of innovation — especially around AI tools for brokers and agents — continues to raise the bar for the entire industry.”
Antoun credits his experience in the UAE market with helping him identify key pain points in the mortgage process. He formed partnerships with leading banks and introduced digital pre-approvals on a platform that connects brokers and borrowers. Within three years, Huspy captured 30% of the UAE mortgage market, with 25% in Dubai, one of the world’s most active real estate markets. These achievements, along with exclusive banking relationships, provided the foundation for expansion into Spain.
In 2022, Huspy began scaling into Spain, a fragmented real estate market with over 100,000 registered agents. Unlike iBuyer models or traditional brokerages, Huspy operates on a network-based model. Freelance agents use the platform to access property leads from marketplaces like Property Finder and Idealista, while Huspy provides CRM tools, transaction support, and integrated mortgage products through its banking partners.
This low-overhead approach is more similar to Uber for real estate than Zillow. Antoun, who previously worked on the investment team at Dubai-based early-stage VC Beco Capital, and deputy CEO Ziad Nassar, who leads the European expansion, believe the company has developed a scalable model that is hard to replicate. Their strategy involves entering mid-sized cities with high transaction volume and low agent efficiency, building supply through marketplace partnerships, and onboarding top-performing agents onto the platform.
In less than a year, Huspy claims to be one of the top three real estate companies in Valencia by transaction volume. The company currently operates in six cities across Spain, where it reports over 20x year-on-year growth.
“I think it’s going to be difficult for someone to compete on the mortgage product specifically across both markets,” said Antoun. “We’ve just been here longer, and in Spain, we have better efficiency.”
Huspy has helped over 25,000 people buy homes across its markets. Since 2022, the company has seen revenue grow more than 10x. The platform earns revenue through commissions and success fees from real estate agents and banks, facilitating over $7 billion in transactions.
Looking ahead, Huspy plans to expand into most major cities across Europe and the Middle East. With another major player, Nawy, also raising a significant round this year, the proptech sector is experiencing a surge. Huspy aims to operate in over 10 cities by the end of 2025.
