INVESTMENT THESIS

We are focused on investing in innovative founders and teams who are leveraging technologies and business models that are disrupting the real estate industry

We invest in startups that are targeting significant market sizes to impact the overall fund performance.

We believe that top-notch entrepreneurs are the growth engine behind every prosperous economy.

We are aiming to invest in rapidly-growing startups that are visionary and seeking success.

We are dedicated to investing in business models and technologies that are reshaping the traditional real estate assets while improving the quality of life and stimulating an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Investment VERTICALS

We're focused on 14 verticals within
the Proptech ecosystem

Smart Cities

Smart Buildings

Co-Working

Co-Living

ConTech

Climate Tech

Hospitality Tech

Real Estate Marketplaces

Real Estate Fintech

Real Estate Legal Tech

Real Estate Analytics

Real Estate Shared Economy

Real Estate VR/AR

Real Estate Blockchain

Investment Theme

We invest in startups that cover the entire real estate lifecycle
while impacting its assets and stakeholders

STAKEHOLDERS

Investors

Property Management

Agents

Developers

Contractors

Engineers

Architects

Workers

Consumers

Assets

Residential

Offices

Industrial

Hospitality

Retail

Service Centers

LIFE CYCLE

ECOSYSTEM

We bridge the gap between the MENA region and the rest of the world in Proptech through our unique ecosystem

Watheeq Proptech Venture relations and partnerships radiate from MENA to reach every region worldwide including US, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Our expertise and partners will assist entrepreneurs to swiftly identify key elements to reveal the best approach and ensure optimal outcomes leading to success.

That is why we know by heart that empowering entrepreneurs with strategic direction, business development, lucrative partnerships, and valuable capital are the main keys to have efficient business.

OUR TEAM

We're a team of professionals coming from various backgrounds, including real estate, investment, and tech

The firm is managed by a team that consists of the world's top proptech professionals with 100+ years of combined experience in real estate, technology, and investments with extensive and recognized knowledge in the market.

$1.33B+

ARRANGED DEALS

$2.66B+

MANAGED FUNDS AUM

30+

ESTABLISHED COMPANIES

20+

MUTUAL FUNDS

Khaled Zaidan

Managing Partner

Abdulelah Alzemami

Principle

‍

Abdulaziz Abaalkhail

Senior Investment Analyst

Nawaf Abumelha

Investment Analyst

Ayham Basheer

Business Technology Analyst

Christian Mischler

Europe Partner

‍

Francesco DeParis

US & Blockchain Partner

Raphael Cohen

Asia Partner

Eng. Nasser Saleh

MENA & FinTech Partner

Hisham Kassim

General Counsel

‍

Harun Al Rasheed

Advisor

Faisal Bin Dakheel

Advisor

Abdulaziz Alnashwan

Advisor

Haytham Al-Majid

Advisor

Ibrahim Al Alwan

Chairman

Mohammed Al Fantoukh

Independent Board Member

Eng. Ibraheem Al Sahen

Independent Board Member

Abdullah Al Muhareb

Dependent Board Member

Christian Mischler

Europe Partner

Francesco DeParis

US & Blockchain Partner

Raphael Cohen

Asia Partner

Eng. Nasser Saleh

MENA & FinTech Partner

Hisham Kassim

General Counsel

Khaled Zaidan

Managing Partner

Abdulelah Alzemami

Principle

Abdulaziz Abaalkhail

Senior Investment Analyst

‍

Nawaf Abumelha

Investment Analyst

Osama Abdullah

Subject-Matter Expert

Ayham Basheer

Business Technology Analyst

Ibrahim Al Alwan

Chairman

Ibrahim has more than 20 years of experience in real estate, investment banking, equity research, portfolio management, business planning, and corporate finance.
‍
Currently, Ibrahim is the Managing Director and CEO of Al Akaria (listed in Tadawul), a leading Saudi real estate development firm with paid-up capital of SAR 2.4 billion, and a Founding Partner at Watheeq Capital.
‍
Before founding Watheeq Capital, Ibrahim had played a leading role in establishing KASB Capital in 2007 as the firm’s CEO. Also, Ibrahim is a former CEO at Al Oula, a leading real estate firm that holds multiple projects that value more than SAR 10 billion across five different countries in the GCC and Egypt.
‍
Additionally, Ibrahim has established and managed 15 mutual funds regulated by the Capital Market Authority (CMA), 12 of which are real estate funds.

Haytham Al-Majid

Advisor

Haytham is now the acting CEO of Shurfah Real Estate Developing Company, a leading real estate development firm based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Haytham began his career in founding T5ear, a leading ecommerce website with thousands of products listings.

Next, Hayham co-founded Mazeej Company for food and beverage.

Also, Haytham is an angel investor with a diverse portfolio of startups.

Abdulaziz Alnashwan

Avisor

Abdulaziz currently leads the Equity funding team for the General Authority for SMEs and is also responsible for developing the investment environment for small and medium enterprises.

Abdulaziz was one of the founders of the Financial Sector Development Program and held the position of Deputy Director of the Program, which is one of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 programs, the program aims to raise the efficiency of the financial sector in the Kingdom.

Abdulaziz also participated in the establishment of Hassana Investment Company, which is the investment arm of the General Organization for Social Insurance, and held several positions concerned with managing portfolio of billions in foreign stocks and bonds and managing investment risks.

Before that, Abdulaziz held several different positions in financial control, internal auditing, and risk management. Abdulaziz also holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certificate and was featured in many seminars and forums during his career.

Harun Al Rasheed

Avisor

Harun is currently the CEO of Al Ramz, a leading real estate development firm based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Harun began his career in business management consulting in Palladium Consulting Group.

Harun trained at Mishari Al-Shathri Consultant Engineering where the training was focused on the areas of project management, quality management and control for several government projects and the private sector.

While studying at the university, he worked in the real estate and contracting field where he supervised several projects in Riyadh and Dammam.

Mohammed Al Fantoukh

Independent Board Member

Mohammed has over 16 years of experience in asset management, project development, real estate development, strategic planning, and corporate financial engineering.
‍
Currently, Mohammed is the CEO of Alsabiq Investment, an independent investment arm for Al Fouzan Group.
‍
Previously, Mohammad had structured, executed, and managed a SAR 6 billion real estate fund - Alinma Makkah - and acquired three hotels and two retail malls in Jabala Omark, Makkah. Also, Mohammad had developed several mega real estate projects across the Kingdom, including the landmark Jeddah Tower in Obhur, featuring the tallest tower in the world during his time as the Head of Alternative Investment at Alinma Investment.
‍
Additionally, Mohammad has developed and structured different investment schemes with public and private placement funds, as well as, advising on project financing transactions for multiple real estate funds. Also, he initiated and managed AIC real estate and private equity portfolio, with an asset under management of SAR 30 billion.

Eng. Ibraheem Al Sahen

Independent Board Member

Ibraheem has over 13 years of experience and a profound understanding of real estate development and investments.
‍
Currently, Ibraheem is the Managing Director at Alghad Indicators, a leading real estate professional services firm.
‍
Previously, Ibraheem had held multiple positions at Saudi Asset Valuation, beginning from the General Valuer, to Project Valuer, and ending as Deputy Director-General.

Also, he had taken part in many real estate deals as he worked in real estate valuation for numerous projects with assets values exceeding SAR 120 billion. And, he is a former Director of Sakani, an initiative by the National Housing Company.
‍
Additionally, Ibraheem has co-founded GeoTech, a leading technology company that is transforming the real estate industry through real estate research, business information systems, artificial intelligence, and data science. Moreover, Ibraheem holds a master’s degree in Property Finance and a diploma in Urban Land Economics.

Abdullah Al Muhareb

Dependent Board Member

Abdullah has over 15 years of extensive experience and deep knowledge in investment, real estate development, real estate funds, REITs, and investment banking.
‍
Currently, Abdullah is a Founding Partner and CEO of Watheeq Capital, a leading financial services firm licensed by the Capital Market Authority (CMA), and a Co-Founder at Manazel Modern Homes, a leading real estate development firm, where he led multiple mega projects that value over SAR 1 billion.
‍
Previously, Abdullah has worked as Real Estate Fund Manager at KASB Capital where he managed the KASB Al Furas Real Estate Fund with an AUM of SAR 500 million. Also, he led the management of multi-asset funds and investment portfolios at KASB Capital, including private equity and stocks, with an AUM exceeding SAR 600 million.

Christian Mischler

Europe Partner

Chris has over twenty years of experience and deep knowledge in entrepreneurship, international management, venture capital, and startup life cycles.

Chris was a Co-Founder and a Global COO of Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda. He had helped Foodpanda expand to 28 different countries in less than 12 months, while heading global operations and product development.

Chris was also serving at HotelQuickly as a Co-Founder, Chairman, COO and CMO, from the inception of the idea to building HotelQuickly into the leading last-minute hotel booking app in Asia-Pacific.

Additionally, Chris has established a Swiss VC fund, Swiss Founders Fund (SFF), a seed and early-stage venture capital fund. As of today, the fund has invested globally in more than 30 startups in different verticals, including PropTech.

One of the SFF portfolio companies was co-founded by Chris in 2016, called GuestReady. GuestReady is now the leading urban short-term rental management company in Europe and the Middle East.

Francisco DeParis

Blockchain & USA Partner

Francesco comes to Watheeq Proptech Venture with more than 15 years of experience in corporate management, developing successful business strategies and scaling consumer facing applications. He has deep experience advising venture funded companies and is an early adopter and thought leader in blockchain and bitcoin.

As the Director of Operations at Couchsurfing, the world’s premier social travel platform, he built a globally distributed engineering and product team to develop features for its 20+ million users. Most recently, he successfully navigated the business through the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his time at Kraken, the leading global cryptocurrency exchange serving millions of clients, he shaped the bitcoin industry in his role as Vice President of Business Development, and secured several financial partnerships that enabled international growth.

Francesco gained industry recognition early in his career as Business Week’s 2007 Best Entrepreneurs Under 25 as the Managing Director and the co-founder of DeParis Redinger, a technology and M&A advisory and online media publishing firm.

He started his career in the corporate finance team at Microsoft where he gained broad exposure to enterprise sales, cash management, M&A and internal audit.

Francesco has a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Babson College and a Certificate in Disruptive Strategy from Harvard Business School.

Raphael Cohen

Asia Partner

Raphael is a well-rounded entrepreneur with more than 10 years of experience in growing startups globally through his diverse set of skills ranging from product management, sales, and marketing.
‍
Currently, Raphael is the Co-Founder of Deskimo, an on-demand access to work desks in professionally managed workspaces across Singapore and Hong Kong.

Previously, he was the Co-Founder and CEO of Gobee.bike, the world’s largest bike-sharing platform including 150+ employees in 9 different cities across Asia and Europe that are serving hundreds of thousands of customers with millions of rides and 38,000 shared bicycles. Also, he played a leading role in raising USD 13.5 million in equity financing from prominent international investors, including Alibaba Group.

Before Gobee.bike, Raphel was the Managing Director of Foodpanda Vietnam, where he was responsible to establish and grow the platform to the country’s #1 online food ordering platform. Also, Raphael was serving at HotelQuickly as a Co-Founder, and CSO, from idea inception to building HotelQuickly into the leading last-minute hotel booking app throughout Asia-Pacific.‍
‍
Additionally, Raphael held the position as the Managing Director of Rocket Intern where he was responsible for the company operations in Asia’s Pacific.

Eng. Nasser Saleh

FinTech Partner

Nasser is a well-rounded entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in business strategy, banking, fintech, and digital transformation.
‍
Currently, Nasser is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Madfooatcom, a Jordan-based leading fintech company with 4 branches across the region. The company is considered the Central Bank of Jordan’s exclusive technology provider through its comprehensive electronic billing and payment system that connects 92% of the banks in Jordan, Post Office, Jordan Mobile Wallets, and more than 85 billers with more than 300 services, including government, telecoms, universities, and other utilities.
‍
Previously, Nasser worked as a Senior Consultant at Accenture Saudi Arabia and led the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) engagement for Al Rajhi Bank investment operations. Moving forward, Nasser moved to Al Rajhi Bank as an eChannel Senior Manager where he led the development of the performance management system that has been integrated entirely with other internal systems.

Hisham Kassim

General Counsel

Hisham is a seasoned corporate lawyer with over 10 years of experience, and deep specialization in cross-border M&A transactions, venture capital, private equity transactions, and international tax.

Currently, Hisham is a Managing Partner at Levari Law, a leading international law firm. Accordingly, Hisham has successfully closed hundreds of M&A and corporate transactions representing numerous funds and corporations throughout the MENA region, USA, UK, and Europe. Several of the transactions included multi-million dollar series A and B transactions. Also, Hisham serves as an Outside Corporate Counsel to several private equity and venture capital funds by advising and monitoring on deal structuring, and due diligence processes.

Additionally, Hisham holds a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from the New York University School of Law. He is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Khaled Zaidan

Managing Partner

Khaled has over 14 years of experience and deep knowledge in Venture capital, investment funds, investment strategy, investment deal and capital structuring.
‍
Khaled was an Investment Fund Manager with KASB Capital in Riyadh, he used to manage a real estate investment funds with AUM of SAR 220 million from the early stage of studying, developing the strategy, and daily fund operations.
‍
Then he moves to work with KPMG in the deal advisory function where he participated in couple of M&A deals as long as in preparing different business plan and strategy for a couple of companies in multiple sectors.

Before joining Watheeq as a Head of Venture Capital, Khaled was the Managing Partner for one of the VC firms in the MENA region named by Wakan Capital where he used to manage and assist different startups portfolio companies regionally and globally.

Khaled now is the managing partner of Watheeq Proptech Venture; Mena 1^stProptech Venture with AUM of SAR 100 mn and he is a board member in couple of startup such as Spaceti, Spiders Micromobility, Darent and CarGenie.

Abdulelah Alzemami

Principle

Abdulelah has over 8 years of experience and knowledge in Investment, Real Estate Investment, Capital Structure and Business Development.
‍
Abdulelah joined Watheeq as head of business development. He has over 8 years of experience in business development and wealth management maintaining a high-quality approach to all sales, services, operational, and risk management processes. A major part of his role is to organize and plan campaigns for Investments and Asset Management lines of business.

Prior to joining Watheeq, Abdulelah was a Director of Business Development at Cayan int' Saudi Arabia & United Arab of Emirates.

Abdulelah is a certified financial planner with an MBA in Finance degree from Bangor University. Also, he is a certified engineer with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from King Saud University.

Abdulaziz Abaalkhail

Senior Investment Analysis

Abdulaziz is currently at his third year of experience, his expertise is in financial planning, strategy, portfolio management and deal sourcing.

Abdulaziz currently works as a Senior investment analyst at the company, the role requires the performance of various tasks such as: deal sourcing, company analysis, reporting and documentation for the relevant authorities, and valuation.

He is currently serving as a board member in CarGenie, an e-fuel retail startup based in Jordan that is re-shaping the fuel industry.

Abdulaziz is at his third year working at Watheeq, he gathered a wide experience in the venture capital sector. He also had experience in coop training at Maalem Financing where he had experience working in financial analysis, business analysis, and accounting.

Osama Abdullah

Subject-Matter Expert

Osama is a project management professional with over 13+ years’ experience in the building and construction industry. His strong communication skills coupled with the ability to lead through adversity have seen him complete countless projects on time and within budget.
‍
Osama have an excellent track record in project management, along with a thorough group of civil engineering concepts. Osama efficiently led and monitored projects during his entire tenure and have created a schematic layout in view of key quantifiable parameter, handled safety and quality standards, ensured optimum usage of manpower and quality and cost controls.

Osama have successfully diversified into several multifaceted roles gaining expertise causative from a broad stance to boost company progression in a vibrant environment.

Osama’s key skills include project coordination, project planning and management, cost control, quality assurance, site engineering, resource optimization, budgeting and forecasting.

Faisal Bin Dakheel

Advisor

Faisal Abdulrahman Bin Dakheel is an investor and a business development manager with over 10 years’ experience in family business, corporate banking, and real-estate development.

Throughout the course of his professional career, his role includes helping grow business andidentifying market opportunities, generating new leads, establishing relationships with potentialclients, as well as performing project analyses, feasibility studies and budgeting.

This enabled him tomanage billions-worth assets of both commercial and corporate for several financial institutions, andhandling portfolios with a size of over SR 5 billion in real estates.Faisal hold a broad executive core competency,sharp business instincts, and a big-picture perspective.Moreover, Faisal is a proven talent for creating investment value and offering high-level strategicapproaches and deep expertise on all facet of complex, commercial real estate projects.

Nawaf Abumelha

Investment Analyst

Nawaf is currently at his second year of experience. Nawaf Graduated from Prince Sultan University with a bachelor degree in finance.
‍
Nawaf currently works as an investment analyst at the company, the role requires the performance of various tasks such as deal sourcing, company analysis, reporting and documentation, market analysis, and valuation.

Nawaf worked previously in the asset management department at HSBC for one year. He worked at the financial alternatives team where his duties included: investment analysis, valuation, and conducting market research..

Ayham Basheer

Business Technology Associate

Ayham has eight years of experience in digital transformation, customer experience, product management, and marketing strategy.

Ayham has began his career as a business analyst at a leading consulting firm in UAE which allowed to engage with many organizations of all sizes across multiple verticals, including SaaS, food and beverage, and digital healthcare.

Moving forward, Ayham has shifted his career to focus on digital transformation by engaging on behalf of regional firms as a digital consultant with leading organizations, including the Saudi General Authority for Military Industries, the Saudi Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority, Adidas MENA, and many more.

Ayham has joined Watheeq investment team as a Business Technology Associate to digitally-enable W Proptech VC Fund by implementing state-of-the-art technology frameworks while assisting portfolio companies' technologies accordingly.

Founders

Dr. Hanin Al-Subaie, Moaid Hassan

Geography

Saudi Arabia

Verticals

Hospitality Tech, Real Estate Shared Economy, Real Estate Marketplace, Co-Living

Darent is a technology start-up in the tourism and hospitality sectors.
It provides a daily local living experience and real estate property management on behalf of the owners and enables residents to list their properties on the platform for daily rental.

Be at Dar, Anywhere

Visit website

Founders

Max Verteletskyi, Ondrej Plevka, Tomas Bartak, Vladimíra Josefiová, Aakash Ravi

Geography

Europe

Verticals

Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Real Estate Analytics

Founded in 2016, Spaceti Holding B.V. helps tenants and landlords drive customer value with a Hybrid work app (booking of desks, meeting rooms, parking lots, lockers) and with Workplace analytics of IoT data (occupancy, temperature, humidity, CO2).

Holistic Building Experience Platform

Visit website

Founders

Abdullah AlDaij

Geography

Saudi Arabia

Verticals

Smart Buildings, Real Estate Marketplace,
Real Estate Analytics

Munjz is the leading Proptech solution for connecting individuals/corporate sectors who looking for household services with top-quality, pre-screened professionals. we are providing many types of services that are needed in every property with a seamless 60-second booking process, secure payment, and a 100% money-back guarantee. Munjz creates value for both customers and professionals to make this market field fast, reliable, and convenient.
‍
Your property more efficient, smart and well managed

Visit website

Founders

Michael Hunter, Arran Summerhill

Geography

United Arab Emiraties

Verticals

Real Estate Fintech, Real Estate Legal Tech,
Real Estate Shared Economy, Real Estate Marketplace, Smart Cities

Launched in 2019, Holo is a leading Proptech-Fintech company on a mission to simplify the process of owning a home by offering digital mortgage services in the Middle East. Holo enables buyers and homeowners to explore refinancing options, Holo’s proprietary technology and trusted independent advisors take the guesswork out of buying property in the MENA, making the process easier, faster and completely stress-free.
‍
The best mortgage platform in the MENA region. Find the best mortgage deal within minutes for free using Holo.

Visit website

Founders

Ibrahim Balilah, Mohammed Alfuraihi

Geography

Saudi Arabia

Verticals

Real Estate Fintech, Real Estate Marketplace,
Real Estate Analytics, Real Estate Shared Economy

Established in 2021, Rize is a technology startup based in Saudi Arabia which aims to disrupt the property rental market. Rize would operate initially as an online rental marketplace (fintech – real estate) for real estate properties, in which customers have the option of renting properties online with more flexibility in terms of payments, and duration (rent now pay later business model).
‍
Our mission is to digitize the residential renting journey.

Visit website

MENA's 1st Proptech venture firm on a mission to

reshape the traditional real estate industry

Overview

Watheeq Proptech Venture is the funding gap forProptech early-stage startups

Proptech

SECTOR

Regional & Global

GEOGRAPHY

Early Stage

STAGE

INVESTMENT THESIS

We are focused on investing in innovative founders and teams who are leveraging technologies and business models that are disrupting the real estate industry

Investment VERTICALS

We're focused on 14 verticals withinthe Proptech ecosystem

Investment Theme

We invest in startups that cover the entire real estate lifecyclewhile impacting its assets and stakeholders

Investment Criteria

ECOSYSTEM

We bridge the gap between the MENA region and the rest of the world in Proptech through our unique ecosystem

Portfolio Companies

We partner with leading founders to build promising companies from an early stage to become globally successful businesses

OUR TEAM

We're a team of professionals coming from various backgrounds, including real estate, investment, and tech

$1.33B+

ARRANGED DEALS

$2.66B+

MANAGED FUNDS AUM

30+

ESTABLISHED COMPANIES

20+

MUTUAL FUNDS

Khaled Zaidan

Abdulelah Alzemami

Abdulaziz Abaalkhail

Nawaf Abumelha

Ayham Basheer

Christian Mischler

Francesco DeParis

Raphael Cohen

Eng. Nasser Saleh

Hisham Kassim

Harun Al Rasheed

Faisal Bin Dakheel

Abdulaziz Alnashwan

Haytham Al-Majid

Ibrahim Al Alwan

Mohammed Al Fantoukh

Eng. Ibraheem Al Sahen

Abdullah Al Muhareb

Christian Mischler

Francesco DeParis

Raphael Cohen

Eng. Nasser Saleh

Hisham Kassim

Khaled Zaidan

Abdulelah Alzemami

Abdulaziz Abaalkhail

Nawaf Abumelha

Osama Abdullah

Ayham Basheer

OUR PARTNERS

We have partnered with the industry's key-players to provide the support required to excel

OUR NEWS

Stay up-to-date with the firm latest news

Interviews

Global Business Outlook Awards 2022 - Interview with Mr. Khaled Zaidan

AWARDS

We have been Awarded The Most Innovative Proptech VC Fund in Saudi Arabia for 2022 by Global Business Outlook

AWARDS

We have been Awarded The Best New VC Fund in Saudi Arabia for 2022 by International Finance Awards

Get Funded

Apply now and get backed by the MENA's 1st Proptech VC fund to scale in the region and beyond

Ibrahim Al Alwan

Haytham Al-Majid

Abdulaziz Alnashwan

Harun Al Rasheed

Mohammed Al Fantoukh

Eng. Ibraheem Al Sahen

Abdullah Al Muhareb

Christian Mischler

Watheeq Proptech Venture is the funding gap for
Proptech early-stage startups

We're focused on 14 verticals within
the Proptech ecosystem

We invest in startups that cover the entire real estate lifecycle
while impacting its assets and stakeholders

Smart Buildings, Real Estate Marketplace,
Real Estate Analytics

Real Estate Fintech, Real Estate Legal Tech,
Real Estate Shared Economy, Real Estate Marketplace, Smart Cities

Real Estate Fintech, Real Estate Marketplace,
Real Estate Analytics, Real Estate Shared Economy