Walid Shihabi is the Co-founder and CSO of Keyper, which he established with his partner Omar Abu Innab in 2022 to digitize property ownership, management and rentals in Dubai. The company is today known for launching a very successful rent facilitation product (Rent Now Pay Later), allowing tenants to pay their rent monthly by card while landlords receive their rent in advance. The company has to-date raised USD 40mn in debt and equity in order to expand its product offerings across Dubai and beyond. Prior to establishing Keyper, Walid Shihabi served as Chief Commercial Officer at Urban, which was the first startup in Dubai to successfully digitize rental payments at scale. He is the founder and president of Hometown Fund Management, which was established in 2012 with the purpose of setting up and managing specialized real estate and hospitality funds in Dubai. As Part of the fund, Walid established and managed one of Dubai’s first and largest vacation rental management companies, Hometown Holiday Homes in 2013. The company was among the first to invest heavily in property technology in the domestic market, including digital access for guests, virtual concierges and 3D Virtual tours on its platform. Prior to establishing Hometown, Walid spent 15 years covering the economy and capital markets of the UAE and the broader region as CEO of SHUAA Securities, one of the UAE’s and the region’s largest and oldest stock brokerage companies, and as Managing Director and Head of Research at SHUAA Capital, the UAE’S largest and most prominent investment bank. Walid is a founding board member of the Dubai Proptech Association, as well as a board member and adviser to a number of promising startups in the region.