Fashinza co-founder Jamil Ahmad has successfully raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-seed funding round for his new venture, Marrfa, led by the Berlin-based venture capital firm Foundamental. The funding round also saw participation from Prashant Malik, general partner at the US-based investment firm Tykhe Block Ventures, as an angel investor.
Ahmad shared with Inc42 his plans to utilize the funding for Marrfa’s expansion into the UAE, Singapore, and Europe, alongside focusing on technological innovations and recruiting talent in the regions where the startup is operational.
Marrfa, conceived by Ahmad, is a comprehensive, managed marketplace for real estate that strives to make high-yield real estate investment opportunities accessible globally. Operating out of Dubai, the startup aims to equip retail investors with detailed insights into profitable real estate deals through its platform, thus enabling them to make well-informed investment decisions in the complex arena of unstructured cross-border investments.
Ahmad envisions Marrfa as a key player in unlocking the potential of specialized real estate markets and offering retail investors around the globe easy access to them. He is committed to making high-return investments more attainable, tackling the challenges within the $270 billion unstructured cross-border real estate investment sector.
Plans for Marrfa include establishing a solid network of agents and creating a discovery platform that facilitates access to financing options for foreign investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Ahmad believes his experience with Fashinza will be instrumental in streamlining the process of cross-border real estate investments.
It’s important to note that Ahmad departed his position as co-founder and chief business officer at the B2B marketplace Fashinza in January this year, after almost four years with the company. This move came shortly before the announcement of his venture into the proptech space with Marrfa, initially focusing on India and the UAE, with ambitions to extend into Singapore and Europe within the next two years.
Ahmad’s transition to launching Marrfa adds him to the increasing list of entrepreneurs who are venturing into new startups after stepping down from their initial ventures.
