Diligent work and a strong belief in success are the factors agreed upon by the entrepreneur brothers when they first started implementing their new project in 2008.
The Khan Brothers were able to leave a powerful impact and be among the most successful businessmen and distinguished entrepreneurs, through continued progress, and remarkable success.
Bayut, as a company, has achieved great success along with the EMPG group. The group includes investment assets in 16 countries around the world, with more than 4,600 ambitious employees under its administration. Today, EMPG has more than 180 million monthly visits to all its group locations.
EMPG, being guided by the aspiration of Mr. Haidar Ali Khan, aimed to make a huge impact in the real estate market by addressing its challenges through a clear plan & vision for a better future in real estate. This was one of the company’s core values since its start-up.
By reading this article, you’ll get to know Bayut’s success journey, its establishment, and the remarkably significant steps that have been made to make it one of the most unique unicorn companies in the region. Success is a result of cumulative numerous achievements made day after day.
Founders of EMPG group and success journey
Before beginning with the group and its journey, we must not forget to mention the founding brothers of the EMPG group who are:
- Mr. Haidar Ali Khan, CEO of Bayut website and the chief of EMPG in the MENA region.
- Mr Zeeshan Ali Khan, the founder of EMPG and CEO of Zameen website in Pakistan.
- Mr Omran Ali Khan, CEO and chief of EMPG.
Now, How did it all start?
The notion of Bayut started in year 2000 when technology and the world web rapidly spread across most business sectors and started playing a semi-important role in achieving and speeding up tasks. The brothers predicted the importance and effectiveness of using the internet to elevate the level of services provided in the real estate sector. They also envisioned smart marketing methods to make real estate accessible to nearly everyone.
Year 2006 was the beginning of a successful journey, as the first website for real estate marketing was launched in Pakistan, under the name Zameen.com.
Zameen provides access to properties behind the computer screens without the need to move elsewhere. During that time, classified ads began appearing and spreading online.
After the success that has been achieved by Zameen website in Pakistan, Bayut was established in the UAE in 2008. The team had full confidence that their startup will grow into a huge success; it really was!
Today, Bayut.com became one of the biggest and most successful companies in the field of real estate marketing. It received numerous awards, including the Asian Business Leaders Awards CNBC as the best real estate website in Dubai and the best website in the Arab world. It was followed by a series of successes where Bayut became the smartest real estate website in the middle east.
In addition to Bayut.com, EMPG owns and runs Zameen.com in Pakistan-as mentioned earlier-, bproperty.com in Bangladesh and Mubawab.com in Morocco.
Note that the real estate group’s websites mentioned above in each of Pakistan, Morocco, and Bangladesh are the leading websites in the real estate market. There is no doubt that Bayut KSA is on the same line as its counterparts in the group, as it seeks full leadership in the Saudi real estate market in the near future.
Increase the total capital of the parent company to 100 million dollars
The parent company, Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG), was able to increase the investment capital by 100 million USD, being considered the latest and largest round of investment for emerging companies.
In this respect, Mr. Omran Ali Khan, CEO of EMPG, declared that the group will use this invested amount in acquisitions and investment opportunities following a keen approach for more technological development operations.
Mr. Khan also added: “We have witnessed a noticeable growth and success leaps in EMPG. It’s been done by adding value to the real estate market by submitting models of unique businesses and distinct technology platforms. At the end of this investment round, we look forward to expanding our geographical scope”.
Bayut acquisition of Lamudi companies in the Middle East
One of the most significant steps in the journey of Bayut’s expansion was the group acquisition of all Lamudi assets in the Middle East that are affiliated to the Middle East Internet Group in the GCC market.
The main aim of taking this step is to extensively expand the scope of group businesses, in addition, to strengthen position as the strongest provider and the largest reference for classified ads of properties in the Gulf. The acquisition of Lamudi included all of its portals in the UAE, KSA, and Jordan.
Affiliated to the Rocket Internet Company, The Middle East Internet Group includes three large portals that belong to Lamudi, as mentioned earlier. Lamudi in KSA was the first property portal in KSA since 2012. Later on, Lamudi in Jordan followed, having a strong presence in the Jordanian market. Lamudi UAE was then launched in 2015. Today, Bayut runs those three assets as part of their acquisition deal.
What did Mr. Khan say about the acquisition of Lamudi?
In regards to the acquisition of Lamudi, Mr. Haidar Ali Khan, CEO of Bayut.com, said: “We’ve always been focused on providing solutions that comply with the various requirements for each market in the region according to its nature. This motivated us to accomplish that deal. And we wanted to share this philosophy with our agents in the GCC region and other markets in the region.”
Khan added: “With the presence of a group of effective real estate websites in the area, we now guarantee the enhancement of property consumer access. We also provide a wide variety of options to our real estate agents to help them show their property units in a unique method that fits each market.”
“We are proud of our trademark that is launched from the markets of this territory. We always seek to be the first available option to our agents by sharing our expertise and advanced technology capacities.”
Launching the Saudi version of Bayut as Bayut.sa
Bayut company carried on with confident steps towards success and determination. On May 2019, Bayut announced the launch of the Saudi version of its website, Bayut.sa, declaring its expansion in the real estate market in Saudi Arabia. This decision was made after various studies and thorough research about the need to enter the KSA real estate market.
Bayut considers the Saudi property market a strategic one of a suitable environment for expansion especially since there are big similarities and multiple common factors shared between KSA and the UAE.
Mr. Haidar Ali Khan spoke about launching Bayut.sa website: “It’s a moment full of accomplishment. Today, for the first time, we announce the launch of our trademark outside of the UAE, Bayut.sa. Saudi Arabia is considered a strategic market for us. Last month, we declared the acquisition of Lamudi website assets in the Middle East including KSA, Jordan, and the UAE. We are fully confident that this acquisition will help us grow bigger as a trademark. It will strongly confirm our presence in GCC countries.”
Mr. Haroon Rashid CEO of Bayut KSA
The businessman and technology entrepreneur Mr. Haroon Rashid has been assigned to be the CEO of Bayut KSA to professionally lead the company’s phase of growth and expansion in KSA through his expertise that exceeds 20 years.
Mr. Haider Ali Khan was pleased to have Mr. Haroon Rashid join Bayut stating:” We’re very excited to have Mr. Haroon to lead our expansion and development in the Saudi market. His leadership and commitment will help us accomplish our vision, in the long run, to make Bayut a distinguished company in the Saudi market.
For his part, Mr. Haroon Rashid, CEO of Bayut.sa website, declared that:” It’s a pleasure for me to join the Bayut team to contribute with my efforts leading to an expansion in KSA. We’re looking forward to the success achieved by Bayut in the real estate market in UAE and its reflection on KSA.”
Merging agreement between EMPG and OLX
This step is considered the biggest in the journey of Bayut and EMPG. It includes a merging agreement to complete the investment round for increasing the invested capital worth 150 million USD. Thisk will lead to an increase in the value of EMPG in the market to approximately a billion USD after the merging, and as part of the deal.
OLX will merge with the operations of EMPG in the four markets to become the single largest contributor to the group with a share of 39%.
EMPG declared its willingness to benefit from the invested capital to develop many new services to create a smooth experience for users, promote data transparency and provide marketing services with a strategic dimension to all users and agents.
EMPG expanding in Southeast Asia
Steps have been taken to strengthen the position of EMPG in Southeast Asia. EMPG announced its acquisition of Lamudi global assets in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Mexico markets, completing its acquisition on “Kaidee” last February.
Kaidee is considered the largest website for classified ads in Thailand. This investment makes it a transitional step to the group’s business in Southeast Asia.
Finally, we can say that accomplishing achievements is possible for those who see unlimited potential even in the tiniest things. The proof is the success journey of Bayut and its perseverance to accomplish achievements day after day. This was an overview of the most important development phases and positive leaps the Bayut has experienced over time.
You can find more various topics and real estate articles like the article
Bayut’s 10 commandments of buying a house on our Bayut KSA Blog.
