Safqah Capital Secures $15.2M Seed to Revolutionise Saudi Property Financing

Safqah Capital has just pulled in a sizeable $15.2 million in a seed round, and believe it or not, the funding was oversubscribed. For a Saudi-based fintech and proptech still early in its journey, that’s no small feat. The round was led by Shorooq, alongside anb Seed Fund and Rua Growth Fund, with more than a dozen other regional and international backers joining the table, including 500 Global, MEVP and Waad Invest.

If you’ve spent any time around founders in the MENA property space, you’ll know the scene well: mega projects grab the headlines, while smaller developers quietly wrestle with financing delays and rigid bank processes. I’ve heard that frustration more times than I can count at startup meetups Arageek has been close to over the years. Safqah seems determined to make that whole process less of a faff.

The Riyadh-headquartered company focuses on helping SME real estate developers access Shariah-compliant debt financing, a segment long underserved by traditional lenders. Over the past 18 months, Safqah has financed more than 70 projects across Saudi Arabia, with a combined value topping $800 million. According to the company, it has recorded zero defaults so far, with loans collateralised at over 248 percent and released in stages as projects hit defined milestones. On paper at least, that risk discipline looks spot on.

Abdullah Alsubaie, co-founder and chief executive, summed up the thinking behind the model by saying that banks were simply not built for the type of developers Safqah set out to support. His argument is that faster access to capital, paired with tighter monitoring, can improve delivery timelines and capital efficiency for everyone involved.

From an investor standpoint, Safqah positions itself as more than a lending platform. The company is building what it calls an operating system for real estate development, blending underwriting, structured finance and software into a single workflow. There’s also a strong data angle. Safqah uses analytics and AI tools to track projects and inform funding decisions, giving developers a central dashboard while offering investors clearer, data-backed reporting.

Shorooq’s founding partner Shane Shin described Safqah as core infrastructure rather than just another finance startup, pointing to its regulatory authorisation from the Capital Market Authority and its fit with the pace of Saudi development. With a national real estate and infrastructure pipeline estimated at over $1.1 trillion, that framing makes sense, even if execution will be the real test.

Other backers echoed the strategic importance. Executives from anb capital and Rua Growth highlighted Safqah’s role in easing one of the market’s biggest bottlenecks: access to structured, Shariah-compliant financing for small and mid-sized developers, which directly feeds into Vision 2030 housing and affordability targets.

The founding team blends tech and real estate experience, from software engineering to IPO-level finance and global startup exposure. That mix will be tested quickly. The fresh capital is earmarked for expanding Safqah’s financing capacity, sharpening its AI-driven risk tools and pushing its digital platform further. I reckon the demand will be there, although scaling without slipping on credit quality is always easier said than done, you know?

All in all, it’s a telling sign of where investors think the real opportunity lies. Not just in shiny giga-projects, but in the plumbing underneath. If Safqah gets this right, it could quietly become one of those unglamorous but essential players everyone depends on. And in this market, that’s definately something to watch.

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