US-based apartment rental firm Blueground plans to double its presence in Dubai to reach approximately 1,000 apartments by the end of next year, according to Amine Housni, the firm’s Middle East regional manager.
Blueground is a real estate tech company that offers fully furnished and equipped apartments for periods of between 1 month and two years, which can be booked within minutes through a dedicated app. The app also allows tenants to request cleaning and other services.
On Thursday morning, Blueground announced the closing of a $50 million Series B funding round led by prominent investment firms WestCap Investment Partners and Prime Ventures.
“The idea is to reach 50,000 properties [globally] by 2023. The fund is going to be deployed mainly to expand to new cities in the US, Europe and the Middle East, and also to strengthen our presence in established markets,” Housni told Arabian Business. “In Dubai, we have 500 properties, and our aim is basically to double that in 2020.”
In addition to its UAE properties and over 2,800 in nine cities around the world such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Istanbul and Athens.
“We’re looking at Paris, London and Seattle and are launching those cities in Q4,” Housni added.
Regional office
In Dubai, Housni said that the company has bolstered its regional office to 40 people ahead of Expo 2020 Dubai.
Housni, however, said that the growth of the Dubai market was expected regardless of Expo.
“When we entered the Dubai market from day one, we were bullish about the market, because of the market dynamics,” he said. “As a market, it relies on expats….there is a lot of mobility and requests for turnkey properties they have access to at any time. Expo is a driver, for sure, but as we’re more in the mid-to-long term space, so it doesn’t matter.
“It’s more of a driver for people in the short-term. But it’s always good to have more visitors to Dubai. Our growth, however, is not contingent on Expo,” he added.
To date, the firm has raised a total of $78 million in funding from VC funds including VentureFriends, AlleyCorp and Jabbar Internet Group.
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