Yodawy, an Egyptian health-tech startup, has successfully received $16 million in its Series B first funding close. 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, co-led the round.

This round was also joined by AAIC Investment, a Japanese firm based in Singapore that provides growth capital and long-term support to fast-growing enterprises in Africa’s healthcare sector, and Dallah Albaraka, a diversified multinational conglomerate based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Existing investors Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), C-Ventures, and P1 Ventures, who participated in the Company’s Series A investment, participated in this round as well.

“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,” Karim Khashaba, co-founder and CEO of Yodawy, 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. 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.”

The funds will be used to expand Yodawy’s flagship Care Programme for Chronic Patients, which provides monthly medicine refills to enrolled patients and daily delivery across 38 Egyptian cities. To serve a fast rising patient population, the company will continue to automate its operations, allowing for larger-scale prescription processing and bolstering existing tech-enabled fulfilment capabilities. Beyond Egypt, Yodawy will set aside a portion of the earnings to fund its regional expansion.

Why The Investors Invested

Yodawy has generated sales 400% in the 18 months since its Series A, and has worked with 20 main health insurance organisations, 3,000 pharmacies, and over 300 corporates in Egypt. The company has established a statewide and tech-powered fulfilment infrastructure to reach patients across Egypt, and it has also launched Egypt’s first e-prescription gateway. With seven insurance companies and health management organisations participating in the scheme, more than 2,000 e-prescriptions are generated every day.

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Brendon Blacker, Managing Partner at Delivery Hero Ventures, commented:

“We were 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.”

Noor Sweid, Managing Partner at Global Ventures, commented:

“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. We continue to be fascinated by the ways they’ve used technology to elevate the healthcare experience for insured and non-insured patients. 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. We are thrilled to continue on this journey with them, and for the next chapter for Yodawy as it takes on more markets across the region.”

This current round of funding increases the company’s total capital raised to $24.5 million in four years.

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A Look At What The Startup Does

Yodawy, founded in 2018 by Karim Khashaba, Yasser Abdel Gawad, and Sherief El-Feky, allows its partners — insurance companies, medical providers, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical/FMCG firms — to serve a larger audience and give an exceptional customer journey to patients everywhere in Egypt. To far, the platform has handled over four million prescriptions, and its value proposition and service benefits have been recognised by large payers and corporations that have chosen Yodawy as their exclusive partner to assist patients in need of chronic medication. 

Yodawy health Yodawy health

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard