Egyptian digital healthcare startup Yodawy, which has pioneered a pharmacy benefit management platform in the MENA region using technology, expert pharmacists, and state-of-the-art logistics, has raised US$16 million in the first close of its Series B round.
Founded in 2018, Yodawy enables its partners – insurance companies, medical providers, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical/FMCG companies – to service a wider audience and offer an exemplary customer journey to patients, anywhere in Egypt.
The company has built a nationwide and tech-powered fulfillment infrastructure to reach patients across Egypt, and has also launched a flagship e-prescription gateway that allows physicians to go paperless.
Yodawy’s platform has processed over four million prescriptions to date, while in the 18 months since its Series A round the startup has grown revenue by 400 per cent and partnered with 20 leading health insurance companies, 3,000 pharmacies, and more than 300 corporates in Egypt.
The US$16 million raised in the first close of its Series B takes total capital raised to US$24.5 million, with the round co-led by Delivery Hero Ventures – the venture capital arm of leading global food delivery platform Delivery Hero – and Global Ventures – an international, UAE-based, venture capital firm investing across MEA.
AAIC Investment and Dallah Albaraka also participated in the round, which also includes existing investors Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), C-Ventures, and P1 Ventures.
The proceeds will fuel the growth of Yodawy’s signature Care Programme for Chronic patients – offering monthly medication refills to enrolled patients and processing daily deliveries, nationwide, across 38 cities in Egypt. The company will continue to automate its operations, which will enable prescription processing at a larger scale, and bolster existing tech-enabled fulfillment capabilities to serve a rapidly growing base of patients. Beyond Egypt, Yodawy will also ring-fence part of the proceeds to finance its regional expansion.
“We are absolutely thrilled to receive the support of leading global investors with such strong healthcare and technology expertise. Yodawy is disrupting how prescriptions are produced digitally, by doctors, processed by payers, and delivered to patients’ homes,” said Karim Khashaba, co-founder and CEO of Yodawy.
“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. 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 US$100 billion pharma market.”
Brendon Blacker, managing partner at Delivery Hero Ventures, said his company was drawn to Yodawy due to its founding team’s clear vision to revolutionise the pharmacy industry across the MENA region.
“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. As an incoming member of the Yodawy board, I look forward to supporting the team on their journey to build a world-class digital healthcare platform,” he said.
