Behind the Investment: Meet BRKZ

The Saudi Arabia-based B2B Construction Marketplace that is expanding across MENA

BRKZ, a Saudi Arabia-based B2B Construction Marketplace, emerged from stealth and announced its $8 million Series A funding round co-led by 9900 and BECO Capital. Fluent Ventures invested in an earlier round.

The syndicate includes a number of global and local investors like Aramco’s Wa’ed Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Class5, among others.

Our investment in BRKZ is an example of our geographic arbitrage strategy in action. We back local monopolies building proven global business models. Today, B2B Marketplaces for construction servicing “traditional” contractors are succeeding around the world yet MENA remains ripe for disruption. We believes BRKZ can execute on a playbook to build a B2B marketplace for construction in MENA similar to Infra Market (India) Of Business (India), BRIK (Southeast Asia), Material Bank (United States), Kojo (United States), Tul (LatAm), Schuttflix (Europe), and Chausson (Europe).

We are excited by what BRKZ is building towards and wanted to share our thoughts:

Background on the Founder and Company

Founded in 2022 by Ibrahim Manna, a seasoned entrepreneur with a deep background in logistics and a former executive at Careem, BRKZ addresses several critical challenges facing the construction industry. These challenges include fragmented supply chains, operational inefficiencies, and restricted access to financing. BRKZ leverages technology to offer a platform that connects construction businesses with a wide array of suppliers, providing competitive prices, multiple delivery, and payment options, and a streamlined request for quotes (RFQ) process. The solution enables key players to expand their market reach efficiently.

Addressing a High-Value Market

MENA is experiencing a construction renaissance. Driven by Gulf countries, construction is reaching unprecedented heights in the MENA region, with ongoing and planned infrastructure, transport, and building projects valued at approximately $2.5 trillion.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 outlines ambitious goals for diversifying the economy and developing public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation, and tourism. All this will require investments in physical infrastructure – thus construction.

While there is a market opportunity, the construction industry in MENA faces major challenges plagued by a fragmented supply chain, inefficient operations, and a lack of access to financing.

1.     Fragmented Supply Chain: Today, the breadth of items available (SKUs) are limited by suppliers’ store space. There is a lack of comprehensive SKUs catalogues to present products with their specifications. This leads to suppliers relying on in-city stock for same-day delivery with limited and outdated catalogues.

2.     Operational Efficiency: Today, a contractor must coordinate with several suppliers and pricing is not transparent. The orders are placed by phone and in person. There are consistently unreliable delivery schedules with no ability to track orders. And when deliveries are late, this is not just an inconvenience, but generates real costs from idle time from paid employees (and project delays). Presently, almost a third of orders face delays due to these challenges.

3.     Lack of Access to Financing: Given the construction space, the industry is highly capital intensive, and credit is not offered to everyone, and it is extremely expensive. Informal players keep error-prone note-pads. And this industry is hard to reach, with limited visibility on earnings. No wonder working capital is hard to access.

BRKZ is tapping into the market with a high demand for innovation and efficiency. BRKZ's model improves efficiency and reduces costs for both suppliers and contractors. The platform's ability to attract a wide range of suppliers (around 350, offering about 1,200 assorted products) demonstrates its capacity to meet the diverse needs of the construction sector. The company has the potential to significantly disrupt and enhance the traditional construction procurement process.

Leveraging Technology for Efficiency

BRKZ’s solution enables customers on its platform to achieve higher growth for their businesses through preferential pricing, flexible financing, and frictionless fulfillment.

One of BRKZ's core strengths is its ability to harness technology to solve longstanding problems within the construction sector. The platform's tech-enabled ecosystem aims to revolutionize how building materials are sourced, purchased, and supplied, promoting transparency and operational efficiency. The features of the platform are tailored to customers’ needs and solve the most intractable procurement challenges in the industry.

From a usability standpoint, the company is building a digital experience for the needs of the target segment accessible through web, mobile, and WhatsApp. This enables the company to meet the customers in their workflows.

We are excited by the vision and believe the importance of digital solutions in transforming traditional industries.

Expansion and Growth

With the latest funding round, BRKZ plans to deepen its proprietary capabilities and expand its footprint across Saudi Arabia and beyond. This growth is not only crucial for BRKZ but also aligns with Fluent Ventures' strategy of investing in companies with the potential for significant expansion and impact across local markets. The construction industry's size and scope in the KSA and the MENA region offer opportunities for BRKZ to scale and evolve.

Fluent’s Investment into BRKZ

Fluent Ventures is excited to partner with BRKZ to help revolutionize the construction industry in the MENA region. By backing BRKZ, Fluent Ventures not only capitalizes on a high-value market opportunity but also contributes to the transformation of a sector critical to the region's economic development and diversification efforts. As BRKZ continues to grow and expand its capabilities, its impact on the construction sector is expected to be profound, with potential benefits extending across the industry's entire value chain while cutting out the middlemen to drive improved margins.

As part of our fund strategy, we are always looking for founders that are building in proven business models that we believe can be replicated around the world. If you are building a B2B construction marketplace outside of MENA, we would love to connect! Please reach out to Alex@fluentvc.com.