Big News: Sakan Acquires Qatar’s hapondo in Strategic GCC Expansion
Prominent local investors have joined the leadership team of Qatari-owned real estate platform, hapondo. With the new management structure, hapondo seeks to fast-track its innovative development plans to support in making Qatar’s real estate sector more efficient and transparent. hapondo, founded in 2020, is a real estate platform that connects real estate companies to customers, and is the first of its kind in Qatar, being a homegrown portal. The platform has created great traction in its first 2 years of operation, working with several leading real estate companies in Qatar and reaching over 100,000 unique visitors every month.
With the new management structure, hapondo seeks to prioritize the development of its product in order to offer new services to both real estate companies and users of the website. Currently incubated by Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), one of hapondo’s main aims is to work with local companies, partners, and entrepreneurs to help foster the growth and development of the real estate market in Qatar. The new management team in hapondo brings diverse expertise and experience to help hapondo achieve its goals. The new management team members include Abdulla Al Khenji, Faraj Abdulla, and Tariq Nabina:
Abdulla Al Khenji has vast experience in startups and entrepreneurship. He holds a Bachelor’s in Information Systems, from Carnegie Mellon University. He began his journey working in the healthcare and technology sector and has co-founded and exited multiple startups to local and international investors. With more than 15 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, Abdulla enjoys solving community problems using design and technology and has served as a board member and advisor to multiple startups.
Faraj Abdulla holds a Bachelor’s in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Bradford and an EMBA from Quantic School of Business & Technology. Faraj began his entrepreneurial journey by founding and investing in multiple startups. To date, he holds shares in 10+ local and international investments in private equity. Faraj currently holds a role as an RDI Program Manager in QRDIC while continuing to be a serial entrepreneur and an angel investor.
Tariq Nabina has over 14 years of local and international business experience across several sectors and is a leading executive in Qatar’s construction and interior design industry. He holds Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Qatar University and a Master’s in Finance from Northumbria University. He has taken over the leadership of Nabina Holding, one of the leading and largest independent family-owned businesses in Qatar that was established more than 70 years ago; Tariq has led the transformation and modernisation of the company, ensuring its future success.
Speaking about the business’ prospects, Abdulla Al Khenji stated, “Qatar has some of the best real estate offerings, and we want to use technology to our advantage to help connect Qatar’s community to properties that suit their requirements. We look forward to solving problems for our clients and offering the best user experience possible for those who visit our platform.”
Faraj Abdulla also spoke about the important gap that hapondo fills in Qatar’s market; “It’s important that we build solutions in Qatar for the unique problems and potential opportunities we have. hapondo is uniquely positioned to help Qatar’s digital transformation, and we look forward to working with all our clients and partners to help make a positive impact on the real estate market in Qatar.”
Commenting on joining the hapondo management team, Tariq Nabina added, “It’s very exciting to be part of such a visionary team. We all come with different experiences that will greatly contribute to hapondo’s growth. The whole team is motivated to make the real estate market in Qatar more transparent, and we aim to build products and services on par or better with what we see in other parts of the world.”
Haajerah Khan and Ahmad Al Khanji, co-founders, remain on the management team of hapondo. As the company continues its work as the leading Qatari-owned real estate platform, the company’s new management is aiming to prioritise the optimisation of their products and services, as well as expanding their brand and future vision.
Ahmad Al Khanji stated “hapondo was born out of the idea of making the process of finding a home in Qatar easier. Along the journey of doing this, we realized that we are also able to address other problems that people in Qatar are facing when it comes to real estate. The new management team comes with great experience and drive to innovate, and I’m really looking forward to working with the new team and for the next chapter of hapondo.”
To learn more about hapondo and to browse properties in Qatar, visit https://hapondo.qa
Last Updated on August 25, 2024 by Safiya K
