Emirati Challenger Portal Houza Folds as Investors Lose Appetite

April 4, 2024
Share this Post: 

The UAE-based challenger portal Houza ceased operations in February.

Born out of agents' frustration with incumbents during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Houza was set up to compete with Property Finder and Bayut / Dubizzle and drive down listing prices in the lucrative Emirati market.

Online Marketplaces understands that the business experienced issues around its product-market fit as well as waning appetite from its investors.

Set up by former Dubizzle employee Barry Judge in January 2020 in partnership with several agency groups, Houza went on to raise $5.5 million in 2022 and appointed former OLX Group exec, JP Mondalek as CEO. A large part of the investment came from some of the country's largest real estate franchises including Allsopp & Allsopp, Betterhomes Group, Driven Properties, D&B Properties and Espace Real Estate.

April 4, 2024
Since March 2020 Edmund's job has been to read about, write about, collect data on, analyse and generally know about real estate marketplaces and the companies that run them. Before that he worked at the aggregator Mitula Group (which became Lifull Connect) for five years.

Subscribe to our mailing list to get the famous, free Friday newsletter!

News and analysis to help build better online marketplace businesses, in your inbox, every Friday

Related News

Untitled Design 7
Portal Product Roundup: Zillow, Lifull, Immowelt, Graana and SeLoger

Another week, another product roundup for our readers. No need for fluff, here's what we've spotted...   Zillow adds six...

Read More
Untitled Design 9
Zillow COO Divulges AI Plans and Shares Zestimate Success

Zillow's Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Wacksman has discussed Zillow's plans for artificial intelligence and provided an update on the accuracy...

Read More
Untitled Design 6
PropTech Funding Roundup: Blueground, Mortgage Brain and Rendin

  Blueground raises $45M Series D round U.S.-based proptech Blueground has raised $45M from investors including Susquehanna and Westcap, and...

Read More
Tiko 10Qs
Ten Questions with Sina Afra, CEO at Tiko

Zillow stopped. Casavo stopped. But in Spain, one iBuyer isn't slowing down. Indeed, it's speeding up. Turkey-based iBuyer and brokerage...

Read More