Egyptian startup Nawah Scientific, a platform for the outsourcing of scientific services and research experiments, has a second pre-Series A funding round worth US$1 million to help it further expand its capabilities and move into new verticals.
Founded in 2015, Nawah Scientific is an online platform that receives experiment requests, collects samples, conducts tests and returns results digitally. Its aim is to enable scientists to conduct higher quality research, regardless of their location and owned lab facilities.
The startup has established itself as an integral part of Egypt’s pharmaceutical industry, and has so far analysed over 50,000 samples from more than 3,000 clients in nine countries. It has now raised a second pre-Series A round worth US$1 million in equity and debt capital, taking its total funding to US$2 million ahead of a planned Series A round later in 2021.
The round is led by Egypt Ventures, an Egyptian government-backed fund and one of Nawah’s early investors, and also features the newly launched Alexandria Fund (AF), Cairo Angels, Alex Angels and Hult Alumni Angels, as well as several international angels.
Nawah has grown its analytical facilities by five times in 2020, and has aggressive plans to expand into more verticals, such as the food, agriculture and petrochemical industries, all of which depend heavily on quality control tests.
“Every day, I realise that Nawah’s potential is way beyond our initial imagination and that we are barely scratching the surface. Our work has significantly empowered the scientific society in Egypt and we are expanding next year to surrounding countries with an aggressive plan to cover MENA and Africa in the foreseeable future. I’m extremely thankful to the amazing team of scientists who is making this happen,” Nawah’s founder Dr Omar Sakr said.
Egypt Ventures chief executive officer (CEO) Ahmed Gomaa said his firm had a clear mandate to support exceptional Egyptian startups bringing actual value to the Egyptian community.
“We have witnessed Nawah firsthand and we have seen how they deliver on their promise to empower scientific research in the entire MEA region. We are thrilled to be part of their journey as they scale their offerings and expand into new markets,” he said.
