The building procurement is strongly fragmented, manually and opaque, which forces the contractors to juggle several suppliers, to endure lengthy negotiations and to deal with delayed payments. In Saudi Arabia, where trillion dollar infrastructure and real estate projects are underway, these inefficiencies are even more pronounced.
To address this, BRKZA RIAD-based construction technology startup offers a technically capable, managed marketplace that optimizes the procurement and offers tailor-made financing solutions. The company has collected 9 million US dollars (8 million US dollars of equity and $ 1 million), which increased the financing of Serie A to $ 17 million, with investors being doubled.
Existing investors, including Aramco’s Waed, Beco Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Global Class 5, Fluent Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Misy Ventures, RZM investments and 9900 Capital, which has taken part again.
This follows that 8 -million dollar series A1 round BRKZ announced last March.
Ibrahim MannaA former executive at Uber subsidiary Careem, BRKZ founded in 2023 after he had experienced these challenges first -hand.
“After Careem’s exit to Uber, I bought a family house in May 2020 and looked at the inefficiencies of the construction chain of the construction chain – visibility in the selection of materials, the uncertainty about the location of goods and price volatility,” Manna told Techcrunch. “This frustration made it clear to me how outdated the industry is and that it had a great chance of being explored.”
Procurement of building materials
Manna says he had met with over 100 suppliers and contractors in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to get a clear picture of the challenges of building procurement in the region. He found that Saudi Arabia, broken everywhere, performed the enormous chance that was powered by the country’s 2030 vision and the strong market diapers.
On BRKZ, contractors and factories can procure important building materials such as cement, steel and wood. You benefit from transparent prices, competitive offers in just 20 minutes and now buy later funds, while factories can obtain raw materials and expand their customer base.
Similarly, the platform reduces the usual hurdles of the high transport costs and coordination problems in all regions. Last year, BRKZ of 1,200 skus and 350 suppliers grown to over 7,000 skus and 1,100 suppliers. Since its series A1, sales have quadrupled in 2024 in 2024. More than 850 contractors and factories use BRKZ for large -scale projects such as King Salman Park, NEOM and the Red Sea Project.
BRKZ has aggressive in over 40 cities in the central, eastern and western provinces of Saudi -Arabia and increased the RFQ volume of 170 million US dollars last March to 350 million US dollars (SAR 1.3 billion). Manna remarked that the construction tech company intends to extend its reach to the north and south provinces.
Income diversification
In order to be ahead of the curve, BRKZ will diversify the sales flows that are currently generated by transaction fees and financing solutions, including purchase, pay later and tailor -made loan offers.
Manna says that BRKZ works with contractors, but has to do with developers and suppliers, a number of customers with different needs, materials and price models that require a wider range of sourcing options. The company plans to import hard building materials directly from the global markets, starting with China this year and later in India and Turkey to satisfy this growing demand in the country.
“We are very pleased about the structure or enabling of a retail corridor between China and Saudi when we start importing goods. We like to know our contractors, suppliers and others from China. If materials are needed outside of Saudi Arabia, we will receive them, mark them white and sell them to contractors, developers and suppliers in Saudi Arabia. Our focus is on Saudi Arabia, ”he said. The marks a shift From the earlier ambitions of BRKZ to expand in the Mena region.
In particular, the move corresponds to China’s efforts to strengthen relationships with the markets in the Middle East in relation to US trade policy. In view of the Saudi Arabia and China building dumplings in mega projects such as NEOM and the line, BRKZ’s import strategy could benefit from trade incentives at the state level and financing between the two nations.
Full-service construction ecosystem
BRKZ is aiming for a full-service construction ecosystem beyond the materials by appealing four pillars of each project: procurement (its core business today), financing (BNPL and credit solutions), the supply of workers and the procurement/rent for devices. Manna, the managing director of the global markets at Careem, says that the expansion to the workforce and equipment services BRKZ will make an end-to-end platform for contractors and developers.
In addition, an important product in relation to the focus will be used to use AI and machine learning to automate the prices for prices, the generation of the ordering order and other internal processes and the efficiency for the company and the contractor and To improve suppliers.
The new capital will launch the newly raised capital to become this comprehensive procurement center, which it would imagine, in addition to the driver’s extension to Saudi Arabia.
“The BRKZ team has carried out its product and operating roadmap to increase the efficiency in this rapidly scaling sector, and we look forward to continuing to support you in your next chapter. The BRKZ financing product complements its digitized procurement platform and provides the customer cash flow challenges, ”said Dany Farha, co-founder and managing partner at Beco Capital.
Since the start two years ago, BRKZ has collected $ 22.5 million, including $ 5.5 million from prepared and seeds. According to Manna, the company’s evaluation has grown by 46% last year, which reflects 4 times the previous year’s turnover with positive economy of the units.
