Cairo – Mubasher: Yodawy, an Egyptian digital healthcare startup, has raised $16 million in the first close of its Series B funding round that was co-led by the UAE-based venture capital (VC) firm investing across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region Global Ventures.
Delivery Hero Ventures, the VC arm of leading global food delivery platform Delivery Hero, also participated in the funding round. The VC arm invested in OneOrder’s fundraising process last year.
Yodawy will use the proceeds of the financing to fuel the growth of its signature Care Program for Chronic patients.
A total of 38 cities across Egypt will benefit from the programme that provides monthly medication refills to enrolled patients and processes daily deliveries nationwide.
The funding will also help the startup to carry on with the automation of its operations, in addition to financing its regional expansion plans.
Dallah Albaraka, a diversified international group based out of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah also participated in the round, along with AAIC Investment, a Japanese fund that is headquartered out of Singapore and provides growth capital as well as long-term support to fast-growing enterprises within the healthcare sector in Africa.
Furthermore, existing investors Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), C-Ventures, and P1 Ventures, which had invested in Yodawy’s Series A fundraising transaction, followed on in this current round.
Co-Founder and CEO of Yodawy, Karim Khashaba, said: “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.”
Khashaba added: “Yodawy will continue to 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.”
Meanwhile, Managing Partner at Delivery Hero Ventures, Brendon Blacker, said: “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.”
Noor Sweid, Managing Partner at Global Ventures, who was interviewed by Mubasher in 2021, stated: “Since our first investment one year and a half ago, the Yodawy team has consistently delivered on its mission of making pharma-retail accessible, affordable, and frictionless for millions of Egyptians.”
It is worth noting that this latest funding brought Yodawy’s total capital raised to $24.50 million since its inception in 2018.
In 2022, Banque Misr, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), and Banque du Caire invested in fintech fund Nclude, which was launched by Global Ventures with an initial amount of $85 million.
