In early 2020, Aahan Bhojani (MBA 2019) was working for a travel fintech startup in Boston when the coronavirus pandemic resulted in lockdowns around the world. But Bhojani wasn't in Boston when governments began closing their borders—he was on vacation in Dubai.

In some ways, this wasn't a huge problem—Bhojani was born and raised in the United Arab Emirates and had plenty of family and friends in the region. But he still had a lease on an apartment back in Boston—an apartment he most definitely was not using. That pain point was the inspiration for Silkhaus, a Dubai-based proptech startup that offers short, medium, and long-term rentals to business and leisure travelers.

"When I couldn't extricate myself out of the Boston lease, I felt that residential real estate was letting me down as a modern consumer," Bhojani told Arabian Business. "I was not unique. I just don't spend 12 months in the same place, and I think that's how our generation lives today. This is a universal reality."

A recent $7.75 million fundraise is being used to build on Silkhaus's 21-person team; eventually, Bhojani hopes to expand the company's offerings from Dubai to Saudi Arabia and beyond. "There are almost 25,000 short-term rentals here in Dubai and 550 companies are operating them," he said. "These are often small companies that do a great job, but in a piecemeal manner. …They don't necessarily have access to technology that allows them to widely distribute or automate pricing to optimize revenue. We're bringing benefits of scale and technology to this whole ecosystem."

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