Generation Start-up: How Elmawkaa is connecting buyers and suppliers in construction

The company aims to expand operations across the Middle East amid a boom in the property sector

Ebrahem Anwar, co-founder and chief executive of Elmawkaa, centre, along with co-founders Mahmoud Habib, right, and Mohamed Thabet. Photo: Elmawkaa

Ebrahem Anwar, a civil engineer by profession, believed there was a need to connect the dots between construction and technology.

Shortly after his graduation, he launched Handaz, a website specialising in providing services related to the construction industry. He, however, closed the website as he felt its revenue model would “not succeed” amid lower subscriptions by users.

Handaz was useful in converting 2D drawings into 3D BIM (building information modelling) for designing and construction of new projects but it “was too early to the market and few people subscribed. So we decided to move on,” Mr Anwar says.

The failure of Handaz led him to think about building a start-up “that can grow exponentially and generate more revenue”.

“After my graduation, I went to work with many companies in Egypt and found that there is a gap between construction and technology. I started to ask myself what I could do for this and my brother gave me an Android mobile. So I started to check Play Store and found there are no apps for construction, then I wanted to make it by myself to cater to the industry,” Mr Anwar says.

In 2017, he teamed up with Mahmoud Habib and Mohamed Thabet to launch Elmawkaa in Egypt “with a new mindset” to cater to the construction industry and connect contractors and suppliers.

Elmawkaa is a property technology – PropTech – start-up, currently based in Hub71, that connects contractors and suppliers online and makes buying and selling of building materials easier.

“Elmawkaa is a platform, if you want to buy 50 tonnes of cement, steel, or bricks, you make a request, and our matching algorithm will do their magic and you will get many quotations,” says Mr Anwar, the company’s co-founder and chief executive.

Elmawkaa platform was “pivoted five times,” to suit the market needs and better serve the construction industry, he adds.

The contractors “can pick any one of these quotes and the supplier will deliver it to him to the right place and right time”.

The company has more than 1,600 suppliers of building materials and 11,000 contractors in Egypt and it recorded a revenue of more than $1.5 million in the past two years. It aims to expand to the Arab world’s two largest economies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to capitalise on the growing demand for building materials as construction activity booms in the Middle East.

“We are in a beta phase in Saudi Arabia and we executed around $50,000 [worth of transactions] in the kingdom with 150 suppliers and more than 600 contractors,” he says.

Over the coming months, Elmawkaa aims to start operations in the UAE, as the country’s property market continues to grow after rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have packages for contractors and engineers and also for suppliers. We started as a commission-based revenue model and now we are focusing on subscriptions with more than 60 subscribers with us (currently),” Mr Anwar says.

The total value of property projects currently planned or under construction in the Middle East stands at an estimated $1.36 trillion, consultancy CBRE said in its 2023 Middle East Real Estate Market report in March.

Saudi Arabia accounts for 64.5 per cent of this total or some $877 billion, followed by the UAE, which at $293 billion, accounts for 21.6 per cent of the total.

Saudi Arabia’s construction sector remained strong in the first quarter of 2023 and posted a record reading on the back of higher workloads, a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed in May.

The kingdom is building several new projects as it focuses on diversifying its economy away from oil. The projects span sectors including property, tourism, entertainment, infrastructure and others.

The UAE’s construction sector also remained firmly positive in the first quarter of this year, the survey results showed.

Investment in the construction sector is also expected to rise in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, amid spending plans by the government and private developers.

Egypt’s construction market size is expected to grow to more than $70 billion by 2028 from $46.85 billion in 2023, according to Mordor Intelligence.

“The Egyptian government has made significant investments in the building industry. Additionally, the government is modernising transportation systems, ports, and airports,” the advisory firm says.

It added the Ministry of Transportation is working on about 25 projects related to the rail and road industry that are expected to boost demand for construction materials.

As well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Elmawkaa aims to expand further in Egypt and enter Nigeria and Kenya in the next three years.

“The potential for growth is huge in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE,” amid the construction of new projects, he says.

Mr Anwar says the company has so far raised $400,000 in funding with the participation of angel investors, venture capital firms Flat6Labs and 500 Startups. It plans to raise $1 million more within the next six months.

“I think Hub71 will help in this a lot because they are making a lot of introductions and setting up meetings with investors across the region,” he says.

Start-ups at Hub71, Abu Dhabi's global technology ecosystem, raised about Dh4.5 billion ($1.22 billion) in funding globally until the end of 2022, Ahmad Alwan, deputy chief executive of Hub71 told The National in March.

The figure, which is up more than 40 per cent from the Dh3.2 billion that was raised until the third quarter of 2022, also helped start-ups generate Dh3 billion in revenue at the end of last year, up 20 per cent from the end of the third quarter.

Q&A with Ebrahem Anwar, co-founder and chief executive of Elmawkaa

What successful start-ups do you wish you could have started?

I love and admire Instabug. It’s a Saas (Software as a Service) platform started in Egypt. They raised more than $50 million and now they are penetrating the whole world. They assist tech start-ups or tech companies in tracking bugs and enhancing the performance of apps or websites.

Starting a start-up or raising funds is easy, but to be sustainable and penetrate more than 10 markets, it’s a huge thing for me. I also like the automation and management start-ups, especially ClickUp and Zoom. They are great start-ups and I wish I worked with them or started the company with them.

What new skills have you learnt in the process of starting this company?

I learnt a lot especially how to deal with people, how to manage them, how to grab their attention and give them a vision that they can work for. This is the first thing.

The second thing in business, knowing how to maintain the growth of my company and also knowing that the main objective for the chief executive is to have healthy financials … working and knowing that the cash flow is the breath of the company.

The third thing is automation. Now we need to be “superhumans” and how to be a superhuman? It is by using tools for automation. We need to be superhuman to cope with the rapid development of technology.

Who is your role model?

I believe that we need to have role models in many aspects. In generic terms, I think our Prophet Mohammed and in business I believe a lot in Steve Jobs as he is a guru in business and marketing.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I think we will have a multinational company that works in more than 10 countries. I also plan to be an angel investor besides developing Elmawkaa to expand to more countries.

What is your advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

For entrepreneurs, if they are building a company, the first thing is to find the right team. The second thing, have a vision because with no vision, you will not reach anywhere. The third thing is the need to cope with AI, automation and other new technologies and to have them in your life.