Egyptian startup Chefaa, a patient-centric pharmacy benefits platform, has raised US$5.25 million in funding to accelerate its growth and fuel expansion in Saudi Arabia.
Founded in 2017 by Dr Doaa Aref and Dr Rasha Rady, Chefaa allows users to easily order, schedule, and refill recurring non-insured and insured prescriptions, while also offering various services for all healthcare stakeholders.
It already connects more than one million monthly active users to over 1,100 pharmacies across Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and is now aiming for faster growth after securing US$5.25 million in funding from new and existing investors.
The round was co-led by South Africa’s Newtown Partners and Japan’s Global Brain, and also featured GMS Capital Partners LLC, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, and M3. It follows Chefaa’s successful launch in Saudi Arabia, where it is now operating in eight cities, and will support its efforts to scale in the country.
“Chefaa continues to prioritise market needs in the face of the continuous challenges. This has resulted in designing new services and features with our eyes on our mission and vision. We focus on measuring Chefaa’s impact as we grow. We are thrilled that our investors share our passion and believe in our vision and mission,” said Doaa Aref, CEO of Chefaa.
“Our follow-on investment in Chefaa via DP World’s Innovation Venture Fund reflects our continued conviction that we have a capable set of entrepreneurs in Doaa and Rasha making excellent progress in the massive opportunity to improve healthcare access in GCC and SSA by digitising healthcare user interfaces,” said Llew Claasen, managing partner at Newtown Partners.
“As we have seen a solid growth in this tough business climate since 2022, we truly believe that Chefaa is becoming the uppermost patient-centric service provider in the region. We are delighted to make a decision to have an additional investment and prepared to continuously back the team to further enhance the accessibility of medical services,” said Hiroto Sorita, director of the investment group at Global Brain Corporation.
