Development procurement is very fragmented, handbook, and opaque, forcing contractors to juggle a number of suppliers, endure prolonged negotiations, and cope with delayed funds. In Saudi Arabia, the place trillion-dollar infrastructure and actual property initiatives are underway, these inefficiencies are much more pronounced.
To deal with this, BRKZ, a Riyadh-based development tech startup, presents a tech-enabled managed market that streamlines procurement and offers tailor-made financing options. The corporate has raised $9 million ($8 million in fairness and $1 million in debt), bringing its whole Collection A funding to $17 million, with traders doubling down.
Current traders, together with Aramco’s Waed, BECO Capital, Higher Tomorrow Ventures, Class 5 International, Fluent Ventures, Knollwood Funding Advisory, MISY Ventures, RZM Funding and 9900 Capital re-participated.
This follows the $8 million Collection A1 spherical BRKZ introduced final March.
Ibrahim Manna, a former government at Uber subsidiary Careem, based BRKZ in 2023 after experiencing these challenges firsthand.
“After Careem’s exit to Uber, I purchased a household home in Could 2020 and confronted the inefficiencies of the development provide chain—lack of visibility in materials choice, uncertainty across the whereabouts of products, and value volatility,” Manna instructed TechCrunch. “That frustration made me understand how outdated the trade is and that it introduced an enormous alternative value exploring.”
Sourcing development supplies
Manna says he met with over 100 suppliers and contractors throughout the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan to get a transparent image of development procurement challenges within the area. He discovered that whereas the market was damaged in every single place, Saudi Arabia stood out as essentially the most huge alternative, fueled by the nation’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 and robust market tailwinds.
On BRKZ, contractors and factories can procure important constructing supplies like cement, metal, and wooden. They profit from clear pricing, aggressive quotes in simply 20 minutes, and purchase now, pay later financing, whereas factories can supply uncooked supplies and develop their buyer base.
Equally, the platform cuts by way of the same old hurdles of excessive transportation prices and coordination points throughout areas. Over the previous yr, BRKZ has grown from 1,200 SKUs and 350 suppliers to over 7,000 SKUs and 1,100 suppliers. Since its Collection A1, income has quadrupled in 2024, with greater than 850 contractors and factories utilizing BRKZ for main initiatives like King Salman Park, Neom, and the Crimson Sea Venture.
BRKZ has aggressively expanded into over 40 cities throughout Saudi Arabia’s Central, Japanese, and Western provinces, boosting its RFQ quantity from $170 million final March to $350 million (SAR 1.3 billion) right this moment. The development tech firm intends to increase its attain to the North and South provinces, Manna famous.
Diversifying revenues
To remain forward of the curve, BRKZ can be seeking to diversify its income streams, which it presently generates by way of transaction charges and financing options, together with purchase now, pay later and tailor-made credit score choices.
Manna says that whereas BRKZ works with contractors, it needs to begin coping with builders and suppliers, a set of consumers with completely different wants, supplies, and pricing fashions, which require a broader vary of sourcing choices. The corporate plans to begin importing hard-to-source development supplies instantly from international markets, beginning with China this yr and later India and Turkey to fulfill this rising demand within the nation.
“We’re fairly enthusiastic about constructing or enabling a hall of commerce between China and Saudi as we begin importing items we all know our contractors, suppliers and others want to get from China. If supplies are wanted exterior of Saudi, we’ll get them, white label these items, and promote them to contractors, builders, and suppliers in Saudi. Our focus is to go deeper into Saudi Arabia,” he shared. This marks a shift from BRKZ’s earlier ambitions to develop throughout the MENA area.
Notably, the transfer aligns with China’s efforts to strengthen ties with Center Japanese markets amid uncertainty round U.S. commerce insurance policies. Given Saudi Arabia’s development growth and China’s important position in megaprojects like NEOM and The Line, BRKZ’s import technique may benefit from government-level commerce incentives and financing offers between the 2 nations.
Full-service development ecosystem
Past supplies, BRKZ goals to grow to be a full-service development ecosystem by addressing 4 pillars of any undertaking: procurement (its core enterprise right this moment), financing (BNPL and credit score options), workforce provide, and tools procurement/rental. Manna, who was the managing director of world markets at Careem, says increasing into workforce and tools providers will make BRKZ an end-to-end platform for contractors and builders.
As well as, an vital focus product-wise can be leveraging AI and machine studying to automate pricing predictability, buy order technology, and different inner processes, enhancing effectivity for the corporate in addition to contractors and suppliers.
The newly raised capital will put the corporate on its option to changing into that complete procurement hub it envisions, alongside driving enlargement into Saudi Arabia.
“The BRKZ staff has executed its product and operational roadmap to drive efficiencies on this quickly scaling sector, and we’re excited to proceed supporting them of their subsequent chapter. BRKZ’s financing product will complement their digitized procurement platform and tackle buyer money movement challenges,” stated Dany Farha, co-founder and managing associate at BECO Capital.
Since launching two years in the past, BRKZ has raised $22.5 million, together with $5.5 million from pre-seed and seed rounds. Manna says the corporate’s valuation has grown by 46% up to now yr, reflecting 4x year-over-year income development with constructive unit economics.
