Qatar's Hapondo aims to capture the MENA rental market

Qatar-based property portal Hapondo was conceived over dinner as its founders awaited the bill. Much like other entrepreneurs who have launched similar portals around the globe, these friends also observed that there should be a better, more cost-effective means for finding a home to rent in their market. Thus, Hapondo was born. 

"Our team 'complained' about the difficult and expensive process of finding a home in Qatar," said Abdul Al-Fadhala, CEO at Hapondo, adding that the goal behind Hapondo is to become the leader in the property rental marketplace in the MENA region, delivering the best user experience possible.

In his position as CEO of Hapondo, Al-Fadhala is heavily involved in building the company's strategy and platform, but he is one of four pillars of the new property portal. The other three co-founders who stand behind Hapondo are, Haajerah Khan, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Abdulaziz Al-Yazeedi, Chief Sales Officer (CSO), and Ahmad Al-Khanji, Chief FinanceOfficer (CFO).  

When the four friends analyzed what is currently available to consumers looking for a place to rent in Qatar, they found the process of browsing for a property to be an extremely time-consuming action, photos representing the listings tend to be low-quality and unappealing, and to top it all off, prices are not clear due to undisclosed added fees, making the whole experience of finding a home to lease in Qatar challenging and disheartening. 

The team realized that this was due in part to a wide gap in the real-estate rental market, so they tasked themselves to be pro-active and do something about it. "We want to get rid of the frustrations people face when looking for new home options, because moving is stressful enough already," commented Al-Fadhala.

In December of 2019, Hapondo was incubated by the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), a Member of the Qatar Foundation.

The QSTP Incubator program strives to, accelerate the establishment and growth of promising tech startups, support tech startups with business facilitation, and provide access to a network of mentors, funding programs, training, and prototyping facilities.

The Hapondo team aspires to be part of Qatar’s digital transformation. The company promises to be instrumental toward Qatar's goal of creating an integrated digital society that will enhance people’s ability to partake in the building of a knowledge-based economy. Al-Fadhala stated that "Companies like Hapondo enable Qatar to keep abreast of the digital boom the world is witnessing, and advance the nation's economic development."

Hapondo's official launch is set for February of this year. The company's headquarters is at the Innovation Center at Qatar Science & Technology Park.

Join us February 26-27 for the Property Portal Watch Conference Bangkok 2020.