Takeem Secures NAR Funding to Revolutionise GCC Rental Market with Smart Tech

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 23-02-2026

4 min

UAE proptech Takeem secured backing from NAR’s REACH Middle East programme.

Over 55,000 units onboarded, worth more than AED 5 billion annually.

Its “risk intelligence” and rental guarantees aim to replace “trust, paperwork, and hope”.

Investors praise its GCC-focused model rather than imported Silicon Valley templates.

Award wins and B2C expansion plans signal ambitions to reshape regional rental markets.

There is something about the rental market in our region that always felt… a bit stuck in time. Paperwork, post-dated cheques, endless back and forth. So when I see a startup trying to untangle that knot, I pay attention. And this week, UAE-based proptech Takeem gave the ecosystem another reason to look its way.

Takeem has secured backing from REACH Middle East, part of the global REACH scale-up programme created by Second Century Ventures, the strategic investment arm of the US National Association of Realtors (NAR). For context, NAR is widely seen as one of the most active and sizeable venture investors in real estate technology worldwide. In simple words, this is not small-league support.

The investment comes through REACH Middle East, which focuses on high-growth tech companies shaping the future of real estate. Takeem now joins a portfolio aimed at building what many call the next generation of property infrastructure – and that is a big statement, even by startup standards.

In less than a year, the company has onboarded more than 55,000 residential units onto its platform. These represent over AED 5 billion in annual rental value. Those figures, frankly, are hard to ignore. They point to strong institutional uptake, not just early-stage hype. Now, Takeem is preparing to move more decisively into the B2C space, targeting smaller landlords and tenants directly.

At its core, Takeem is tackling issues that anyone who has rented in the region will recognise: limited transparency around risk, clunky processes, and liquidity constraints that can make renting feel like a gamble. Its proprietary risk intelligence engine and rental guarantee model aim to reduce landlords’ exposure while increasing yields and opening access to tenants. The idea is to bring more predictability into what is, for many, their largest yearly financial commitment.

Rakesh Mavath, Co-founder and CEO of Takeem, has previously described renting as a system still built on “trust, paperwork, and hope.” He said the company’s goal is to make rent more predictable and measurable for landlords, tenants, and institutions, and that backing from NAR REACH MENA and Second Century Ventures helps accelerate the rollout of what he sees as a new operating standard for rental markets.

From the investor side, Dave Garland, Managing Partner at Second Century Ventures, noted that REACH backs companies building critical infrastructure for tomorrow’s real estate landscape. He pointed to Takeem’s rental guarantees and risk intelligence model as addressing a global challenge with a scalable and capital-efficient approach. Siddiq Farid, Managing Director at REACH Middle East, also highlighted that what stood out was Takeem’s understanding of how rental risk behaves specifically in the GCC, rather than simply importing models from other markets.

That local-first angle matters. Too often we see solutions copied and pasted from Silicon Valley and then wonder why they don’t quite fit. I reckon startups that are purpose-built for the GCC, with the ambition to scale globally later, have a better shot at being spot on.

Takeem’s momentum has also been visible on the awards circuit. In April 2024, it won Most Advanced App at the Create Apps Award under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan and supported by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy. In 2025, it was named Startup of the Year at the Tech Innovation Awards in September, Runner Up PropTech of the Year at the Property Finder Awards in November, and PropTech of the Year at the World Reality Congress in December. A crowded trophy shelf for a young company.

With measurable growth, large-scale portfolio onboarding, and now support from one of the world’s most influential real estate investment arms, Takeem is positioning itself as a serious player in rental infrastructure. On the flip side, scaling from institutional portfolios into the consumer market is no walk in the park. It can be a bit of a faff operationally. But if the company manages to translate trust at the top into trust on the ground, it could reshape how rent is managed across the region.

At Arageek, we are always keen to see startups move from promise to impact. And believe it or not, rental tech is not the most glamorous headline-grabber. Yet it touches millions of lives every single year. If Takeem can bring more clarity, liquidity, and discipline into the system, that would be a definatley welcome shift for landlords and tenants alike.

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