Zameen.com’s parent company Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) became one of the Middle East’s leading unicorns. To clarify, a unicorn is a term in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion.
According to data as of December 2021 by Forbes, an international media company, EMPG valued at over $1 billion. Founded in 2015, EMPG joined the unicorn club after merging with the OLX group. EMPG and OLX announced the merger on April 29, 2020, in Pakistan, the UAE, Egypt, and Lebanon.
The transaction included a funding round of $150 million out of which EMPG shareholders invested $75 million. Meanwhile, OLX Group invested the remaining $75 million. As a result, EMPG valued at $1 billion. This made the merged entity the third unicorn created by Pakistani founders following Afiniti and KeepTruckin.
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As per details, EMPG owns and operates bespoke classifieds portals in emerging markets, primarily in the MENA, South Asia and Southeast Asia regions. The group’s flagship ventures are Bayut.com in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Zameen in Pakistan, Bproperty.com in Bangladesh, Mubawab in Morocco and Tunisia, and Kaidee in Thailand.
Zameen.com is Pakistan’s leading real estate enterprise. The real estate giant proved to be a massive success for the country. It also introduced new concepts and ideas, revolutionizing Pakistan’s real estate sector.
The top unicorns in the Middle East
The top 5 unicorns in Middle East together raked in a whopping amount of $8 billion. Careem’s acquisition value in UAE is $3.1 billion. Careem is a vehicle for hire company based in Dubai, with operations running in more than 100 cities. Similarly, Swvl, which is also a Dubai-based ride-sharing company, valued at $1.5 billion. In Pakistan, Swvl currently operates in Lahore and Islamabad.
On the other hand, Fawry, a leading digital transformation & E-payment platform in Egypt, has a market capitalization of $1.4 billion. Fawry offers financial services to consumers and businesses through more than 225,000 locations and a variety of channels. Meanwhile, Kitopi valued over $1 billion. Kitopi is the world’s leading managed cloud kitchen platform. It currently partners with over 200 brands, across 5 countries, operating 60+ kitchens.
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