Lendhaus Secures Top 10 Spot in PIF Proptech Competition, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s Construction Boom.
Lendhaus has earned a prestigious position as a top 10 finalist in the Project Proptech competition, a joint initiative between Tonomus Venture Studio and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). This achievement places our digital commercial real estate financing marketplace among an elite group of innovative proptech companies selected from an impressive pool of 1,250 applicants across 109 countries.
The recognition comes at a strategic moment as Saudi Arabia and the UAE undertake some of the world’s largest construction projects, including the futuristic city NEOM. For Lendhaus, this milestone significantly enhances our growth trajectory and market positioning in one of the world’s most dynamic construction markets.
A Global Platform with Regional Significance
The scale of the competition—with submissions from 109 countries including 150 from Saudi Arabia alone—highlights the intense international interest in developing technological solutions for the property sector. The winning companies focused on green building certification, construction marketplaces, cement innovations, real estate professional tools, and 3D printing for housing, indicating key market priorities that align with our mission to simplify commercial real estate financing.
“This recognition validates our approach to making commercial real estate financing more accessible and efficient through technology,” said Mark Austin, Co-CEO of Lendhaus. “Being selected from such a competitive field demonstrates that our solution addresses critical needs in the global property financing ecosystem.”
Middle East: The New Proptech Innovation Hub
The Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, is actively positioning itself as a global proptech innovation center. Riyadh has explicitly stated its ambition to become “the proptech capital of the world,” using its massive construction projects as real-world laboratories for emerging technologies.
The Saudi Real Estate General Authority has established the Saudi Proptech Hub, including a regulatory sandbox to help startups like ours navigate the local market—signaling strong government commitment to fostering proptech innovation through policy support. This creates an ideal ecosystem where Lendhaus can thrive and expand its global digital commercial real estate financing marketplace.
Riding the Global Proptech Investment Wave
Our finalist position coincides with significant global investment momentum in proptech. Recent funding rounds have ranged from €1.2 million for EU-taxonomy services to €100 million for modular construction, demonstrating robust investor confidence in the sector.
According to industry reports, proptech venture capital funding reached $15.1 billion in 2024, marking a 32.5% year-over-year increase, with construction tech leading at $4.5 billion. This investment surge indicates that proptech is transitioning from experimental adoption to mainstream integration across the real estate value chain—a trend that aligns perfectly with our mission to connect borrowers with global financiers and streamline the entire loan management process.
Strategic Advantages for Lendhaus
For Lendhaus, the finalist position in this high-profile competition offers substantial strategic benefits: enhanced credibility in a competitive market, increased visibility to potential investors and partners, validation of our business model by industry leaders, and potential access to the rapidly growing Middle Eastern market.
With Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and massive construction projects underway, we are positioned at the intersection of technology innovation and unprecedented real estate development. This creates a potentially transformative opportunity for significant growth and market expansion as we continue to build our global digital commercial real estate financing marketplace.
Looking Forward: Innovation at the Core
As we continue to develop our platform, we remain focused on our guiding principle: “In commercial real estate, financing is a big deal, financing and borrowing shouldn’t be.” By using technology and data to standardize, globalize, and simplify commercial real estate financing, we’re creating a single source of truth for all stakeholders.
The recognition from the PIF Proptech Competition reinforces our commitment to innovation and our vision of making the entire global commercial real estate investment and financing industry as straightforward as online share trading or internet banking. We look forward to leveraging this momentum to further expand our reach and impact in the global proptech ecosystem.