Saudi platform Rise secures a $50 million Murabaha facility from Jadwa Investment, shifting real-estate tech from equity drain to contract liquidity

The Saudi real-estate technology platform "Rise" received an asset-backed Murabaha facility worth 187.5 million Saudi riyals, equivalent to $50 million, from Jadwa Investment, to finance its growing portfolio of residential lease contracts. The structural value of this step lies in separating the capital needed to fund the operating portfolio from the equity earmarked for the company’s development, which protects shareholders’ stakes from being eroded by daily liquidity management and directs venture capital toward product and technology development, talent attraction and partnership expansion within the Kingdom.This facility represents a practical shift in the maturity of real-estate technology models by neutralizing the risk of equity dilution in the management of rent receivables.

The platform was founded in 2021 by Ibrahim Balila and Muhammad Al-Furayhi, and it uses a "rent now, pay later" model that allows a qualified tenant to settle their annual obligations in twelve monthly installments, while the landlord receives the full contractual value upfront in one or two payments. These transactions are carried out legally and technically through the "Ijar" network of the Saudi Ministry of Housing, based on a primary lease contract followed by a sub-lease contract with the tenant, with the company explicitly stating that this structure is not cash financing for the tenant but a rescheduling of rental cash flows through the approved governmental infrastructure.

The size and timing of the facility reflect the platform’s broad market share, as its flexible solutions serve more than 200,000 tenants and its network includes over 3,000 property owners and 1,200 accredited real-estate agents across the Kingdom, operating under licences issued by the General Authority for Real Estate for brokerage, electronic marketing and property management. The new facilities follow a Series A round that the company closed in January 2025 for $35 million, combining equity and debt instruments, backed by funds and investors including Sidra Ventures, Raed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Jowa Capital, the "Aqar" platform, Banaa Ventures, Nama Ventures, Wathiq Financial, and Rizam Investment.The facilities aim to capture a share of the Saudi residential rental market, which the company estimates at roughly 150 billion riyals per year.

We see in this deal a financial and regulatory lesson for anyone leading a startup or managing an investment portfolio in the Gulf or Egypt. Relying on risky equity rounds to fund working-capital needs is no longer a sustainable option given current capital costs, and the solution lies in creating Sharia-compliant debt instruments such as asset-backed Murabaha to cover client obligations. The experience also shows that direct linkage with sovereign digital platforms, such as the "Ijar" platform and the official licences of the General Authority for Real Estate, gives large investors like Jadwa Investment sufficient credit confidence to inject non-bank credit liquidity, a path that regional teams should study to avoid diluting ownership and to build solid alliances with local asset managers.