Middle East Proptech Draws $230M as Tokenization Push Reshapes Real Estate Finance

The Middle East's property technology sector pulled in more than $230 million across eight deals this week, signaling a fundamental shift in how the region's finance chiefs are approaching real estate as an asset class.

The flurry of activity, concentrated between February 17-19, 2026, reflects growing institutional appetite for platforms that digitize property ownership, automate underwriting, and embed credit into real estate transactions. For CFOs managing corporate real estate portfolios or treasury investments in the region, the trend marks a departure from traditional property finance structures that have dominated Gulf markets for decades.

Dubai-based Stake led the week's fundraising with an oversubscribed $31 million Series B round from Emirates NBD, while Saudi Arabia's Safqah Capital closed a $15.2 million seed round led by Shorooq, anb Seed Fund, and Rua Growth Fund. The deals follow a pattern established earlier in 2026, when Property Finder secured $170 million, Morocco's Yakeey raised $15 million in Series A funding, and Saudi's Aamar closed a $4 million seed round.

The investment surge coincides with government-backed infrastructure buildouts designed to tokenize property ownership at scale. Dubai's Land Department entered Phase II of its Real Estate Tokenization Program this month, building on the Prypco Mint platform with a stated goal of digitizing $16 billion in property by 2033. Saudi Arabia's Real Estate Registry launched national blockchain infrastructure in 2025 for digital title registration and tokenized ownership, creating regulatory scaffolding that didn't exist two years ago.

What's interesting here—and what finance leaders should actually pay attention to—is not the blockchain hype (we've heard that before), but rather the specific verticals attracting capital. The deals cluster around platforms that fractionalize ownership, structure financing products, and automate leasing workflows. These are operational pain points that corporate finance teams deal with constantly when managing real estate exposure, not theoretical use cases.

Smart Bricks, a UAE-based AI platform for real estate investing, raised $5 million in pre-seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz's a16z Speedrun program. Saudi's SiFi, a spend management platform, closed a $20 million Series A led by Ra'ed Ventures, while InvestSky secured $4 million in seed funding from Emkan Capital, Run Ventures, and Joa Capital.

The week also saw cross-border M&A activity that suggests traditional financial institutions are buying rather than building capabilities. Egypt's Beltone Capital acquired France-based Baobab Group, a micro and small business finance provider, for $235 million. Standard Chartered's SC Ventures partnered with Sanabil Studio to build and scale SME-focused fintech ventures in Saudi Arabia.

The buy-now-pay-later segment continues to attract capital despite global cooling in the sector. Saudi's Madfu, a Sharia-compliant BNPL player, raised $25.5 million in pre-Series A funding led by Afaq Capital, while CASHIN closed a $16 million Series A led by Impact46.

For finance leaders, the question isn't whether property tokenization will happen—the infrastructure is already being built—but rather how quickly corporate treasury functions will need to adapt their real estate investment and financing strategies. The deals this week suggest that timeline is compressing faster than most anticipated.