Contractors must manage several vendors, put up with drawn-out discussions, and cope with late payments due to the extremely fragmented, laborious, and opaque nature of construction procurement. These inefficiencies are even more noticeable in Saudi Arabia, where trillion-dollar real estate and infrastructure projects are currently under way.
A tech-enabled managed marketplace that simplifies procurement and offers customized financing options is what Riyadh-based construction tech firm BRKZ is offering to address this issue. With investors doubling down, the company has raised $9 million ($8 million in equity and $1 million in debt), increasing its total Series A capital to $17 million.
Class 5 Global, Waed of Aramco, BECO Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Fluent Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, MISY Ventures, RZM Investment, and 9900 Capital were among the returning investors.
This comes after last March’s announcement of BRKZ’s $8 million Series A1 round.
After seeing these difficulties firsthand, Ibrahim Manna, a former CEO at the Careem unit of Uber, created BRKZ in 2023.
Manna told TechCrunch, “I purchased a family home in May 2020 after Careem left for Uber, and I had to deal with the inefficiencies of the construction supply chain—lack of visibility in material selection, uncertainty about the whereabouts of goods, and price volatility.” “I became aware of the industry’s outdated nature and the enormous opportunity it offered as a result of that frustration.”
Sourcing construction materials
In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the construction procurement issues in the region, Manna claims he met with more than 100 suppliers and contractors in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. Despite the fact that the market was broken worldwide, he discovered that Saudi Arabia offered the biggest chance due to its Vision 2030 and robust market tailwinds.
Contractors and industries can purchase necessary building supplies including wood, steel, and cement on BRKZ. They gain from purchase now, pay later finance, competitive quotations in 20 minutes, and transparent pricing, while factories may obtain raw materials and grow their clientele.
In a similar vein, the platform overcomes the typical obstacles of exorbitant transit expenses and regional coordination problems. BRKZ now has over 7,000 SKUs and 1,100 suppliers, up from 1,200 SKUs and 350 suppliers a year ago. With over 850 factories and contractors utilizing BRKZ for significant projects including King Salman Park, Neom, and the Red Sea Project, the company’s income has doubled since its Series A1 in 2024.
Since its aggressive expansion into more than 40 cities in the Central, Eastern, and Western regions of Saudi Arabia, BRKZ has increased the size of its RFQ volume from $170 million in March of last year to $350 million (SAR 1.3 billion) today. According to Manna, the building technology company plans to expand into the North and South regions.
Diversifying revenues
In order to remain ahead of the curve, BRKZ will seek to diversify its sources of income, which are currently generated by transaction fees and financing options such as customized credit packages and purchase now, pay later plans.
While BRKZ now works with contractors, Manna says the company aims to expand its customer base to include developers and suppliers. These customers have distinct needs, materials, and pricing structures, necessitating a wider choice of sourcing possibilities. In order to meet the country’s increasing demand, the corporation intends to begin importing difficult-to-source building materials straight from international markets, first from China this year and then from India and Turkey.
As we begin importing commodities that we know our suppliers, contractors, and others would like to obtain from China, we’re quite enthused about creating or facilitating a trade corridor between China and Saudi Arabia. We will procure items from outside Saudi Arabia, white label them, and resell them to Saudi suppliers, contractors, and developers. Going deeper into Saudi Arabia is our main goal,” he said. This represents a change from BRKZ’s prior goals of growing throughout the MENA area.
Notably, the action supports China’s attempts to fortify its connections with Middle Eastern markets in the face of ambiguity surrounding U.S. trade policies. With China playing a major role in megaprojects like NEOM and The Line and Saudi Arabia’s development boom, BRKZ’s import strategy could profit from government-level trade incentives and financing deals between the two nations.
Full-service construction ecosystem
By addressing the four pillars of any project—procurement, which is currently BRKZ’s primary activity; financing (BNPL and credit solutions); manpower supply; and equipment procurement/rental—BRKZ hopes to transform from a materials company into a full-service construction ecosystem. Manna, the former managing director of global markets at Careem, claims that BRKZ will become an end-to-end platform for developers and contractors by diversifying into manpower and equipment services.
Utilizing AI and machine learning to automate pricing predictability, purchase order generation, and other internal procedures will also be a key product emphasis, increasing productivity for the business as well as suppliers and contractors.
The recently collected funds will propel the company’s expansion into Saudi Arabia and help it become the all-inclusive procurement powerhouse it has always envisioned.
“The BRKZ team has successfully implemented their operational and product strategy to increase productivity in this quickly growing industry, and we look forward to helping them in their upcoming phase. Dany Farha, co-founder and managing partner at BECO Capital, stated that BRKZ’s financing product will help customers with their cash flow issues and enhance their digital procurement platform.
BRKZ has raised $22.5 million since its start two years ago, with $5.5 million coming from pre-seed and seed rounds. According to Manna, the company’s valuation has increased by 46% in the last 12 months, which is indicative of four times the sales growth and favorable unit economics.