Egypt's healthcare start-up Yodawy raises $16m to drive growth

Founded in 2018, the digital pharmaceutical platform has processed more than four million prescriptions to date

Venture capital funding in Egypt rose 3.2 per cent annually in 2022 to $517 million. AFP

Yodawy, a digital healthcare start-up based in Egypt, raised $16 million in the first close of its series B funding round as the company aims to improve its core technology, drive business growth and expand regionally.

Co-led by Delivery Hero Ventures, the venture capital arm of food delivery platform Delivery Hero, and UAE-based Global Ventures, the round also registered the participation from a Japanese fund AAIC Investment and Jeddah-based Dallah Albaraka.

The company said its existing investors Middle East Venture Partners, C-Ventures and P1 Ventures, who invested in the series A fundraise, also participated in the latest round.

The latest funding has brought the company’s total capital raised to $24.5 million.

Yodawy will invest “heavily in building one of the most inclusive and sophisticated pharma value chains across the Middle East and Africa’s $100 billion pharma market”, said Karim Khashaba, co-founder and chief executive of the start-up.

“Our focus on products that solve fundamental challenges in the sector has enabled the company to become the leading digital pharma powerhouse in Egypt and the partner of choice for insurance companies and payers at large.”

Venture capital funding in Egypt rose 3.2 per cent annually in 2022 to $517 million, according to start-up data platform Magnitt. However, the number of deals fell 3 per cent to 160 last year, from 165 in 2021.

“Interestingly, all round sizes saw a positive evolution in active investors, re-emphasising the strong investor interest in the country’s growing ecosystem. The highest increase came from round size $5 million to $20 million,” the report said.

Founded in 2018, Yodawy has grown its revenue by 400 per cent in the last 18 months, it said.

It has partnered with 20 health insurance companies, 3,000 pharmacies and more than 300 businesses in Egypt.

The new capital will help the company to expand its signature care programme for chronic patients The programme offers monthly medication refills and processes daily deliveries across 38 cities in Egypt.

Yodawy said it will also hasten the automation of its operations, which will enable faster prescription processing and bolster technology-enabled fulfilment capabilities to serve a growing base of patients.

“With its innovative business model and rapidly growing customer base, Yodawy is ideally positioned to impact the lives of millions of people who have been underserved by traditional healthcare providers,” said Brendon Blacker, managing partner at Delivery Hero Ventures.

Yodawy has also launched an e-prescription gateway that allows physicians to go paperless.

Currently, seven insurance companies and health management organisations are participating in the programme, with more than 2,000 e-prescriptions generated every day.

The platform has processed more than four million prescriptions to date.

The company has used technology to “elevate the healthcare experience for insured and non-insured patients”, said Noor Sweid, managing partner at Global Ventures.

“This is translated in their ability to serve more than 50,000 recurring chronic patients every month and save them more than 100,000 monthly hours of queuing to receive essential medication.”