Startup Egypt - Afrikan Heroes

Egypt’s Online Pharmacy Startup Chefaa Raises More Than $1 million In Pre-Series A Round of Funding

June 15, 2020

Egypt-based on-demand medicine delivery platform has raised a seven-figure (USD) Pre-Series A, without disclosing the exact size of the investment. The money came from 500 Startups (who are following-on), Vision Ventures, Womena and few other investors. Chefaa had previously raised a six-figure seed from 500 Startups, Flat6Labs and a few angel investors in August last year.

Doaa Aref and Dr. Rasha Rady, co-founders

“Chefaa is merging ecommerce with the pharmaceutical industry and positioning itself to lead the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry. With the capital, we have just raised and support of partners like 500 Startups, Vision Wentures and Womena, we are focused on scaling efficiently and sustainably,” Doaa Aref, the co-founder and CEO of Chefaa, said.

Why The Investors Invested

Hasan Haider, Managing Partner of 500 Startups MENA (500 Falcons), said:

“In the current environment, any startup that can improve people’s lives and assist in social distancing measures is doing a service to all of us. We’re happy to be supporting Chefaa in providing people with a more efficient way to get their medication. The team behind Chefaa have done an exemplary job in executing their goals in a very short period of time, and we look forward to their ongoing success.”

“Health and personal care are basic needs for all humans. Our investment into Chefaa plays a part in ensuring that more people have easy access to basic medicine and personal care products. The team behind Chefaa has shown a deep understanding of the field that translated into great growth. We are glad to be part of their ambitious journey,” Kais Al Essa, Founding Partner & CEO of Vision Ventures said.

Egypt: Food-tech Startup Yumamia Raises $1.5 million For Expansion ...

What The Startup Does

Founded in 2017 by Doaa Aref and Dr. Rasha Rady, Chefaa connects patients and pharmacies, enabling chronic patients to schedule, order, and refill their recurring prescriptions as well as other non-pharmaceutical products from pharmacies, through its web or mobile apps. The Egyptian startup claims to have fulfilled hundreds of thousands of orders to date.

Chefaa, serving as a marketplace, when a customer places an order, routes it to the nearest pharmacy who then delivers the medicines to the customers.

It said in a statement that it is helping tens of thousands of chronic patients across Egypt to properly manage their treatment by enabling them to easily order their medicines on a regular basis. Chefaa focuses on chronic patients with repeat orders but its platform is also open for anyone with a prescription to order their medicines, whenever they need them.

The startup that has recently launched its private and while-label products as well, now plans to use the investment to grow its operations team and launch its B2B service to serve SMEs.

“We take pride in serving our growing base of users as well as managing their pharmacy needs. We have built our customer care center to ensure that user experience is being managed professionally. We also understand the impact of chronic illness as well as chronic patients’ needs and we intend to launch new services all designed around making their lives easier,” Dr. Rasha Rady, the co-founder and COO of the startup, said.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.

A Majority of Startup Founders In The Middle East And North Africa Are From Egypt — Report

February 20, 2020

Even though you may find more funded startups in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt is the country where most of the startup founders in the Middle East and North Africa come from. According to a report released by Wamda, MENA region’s leading venture capital firm investing in exceptional entrepreneurs as well as a leading startup research platform, Egyptians are the true leaders of startups and the entrepreneurial spirit in the MENA region.

‘‘As support for entrepreneurship has grown over the past few years, so too has the quality of the startups that are beginning to emerge in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena). Entrepreneurship is no longer just a means out of unemployment, but a challenge for the most tenacious looking to provide solutions for gaps in the local, regional and increasingly, global market.’’ the report notes.

Here Is All You Need To Know

According to Wamda, the UAE and Egypt lead the region in startups, with 35% and 26.5% of startups founded in the UAE and Egypt respectively.
Both of them also lead all other MENA countries comfortably, with only Jordan reaching the double digits with 10.4%, followed by Lebanon’s 5.9%, and Saudi Arabia with 4.7%.

However, Egypt leads the UAE in the nationality of a startup founder. According to reports, despite being a leading country in startups, UAE nationals are not the founders of their companies.
Indians, Pakistani, Palestinian, Syrian, and British nationals have founded more companies in the MENA region than Emirati nationals. However, by far Egyptians lead, with 25.7% of all startups founded by an Egyptian citizen.
The report also shows that Egypt also leads as the country with most startup incorporation and registrations indicating a lot of institutional and governmental support for making a business. This is in line with the government’s strategy of providing an ecosystem where the private sector has backing to develop and lead in economic growth.

Leading Industries Where Investments In The Region Go To

Leading industries in the startup scene are E-commerce, marketplaces, and financial technology are the leading fields. However, the growth of educational, healthcare technology, and software are picking up quick.

Gender Diversity Among Founders

The gender split is heavily in favor of men, with only 25% of founders being female. So far youth are ready to make the leap than the older generation as more than 60% of founders are under 35.

Read also: Egypt is Investing Heavily to Grow World Class Tech Start-up Ecosystem

The Earning of the Founders

The report found that the almost half of founders earn a salary between $10k-$20k. 20% earn between $20k-$40k, and only 10% earn more than $100k meaning that startups tend to be at a small and medium level. This is maintained by the number of people on a team, with 30.5% just composing the founder, an additional 26% who are run by a duo, and 99.5% of startups have less than 20 people on a team.

Sources of Finance Available To Startup Founders

When looking at financing, despite all the talk about venture capitalist founders helping startups, only 6.3 get their initial investment this way. 46.3% are funding their own startup, with 23.8% depending on friends and family for their initial investment.

Key Take-Aways

What can we gather from all this? With good managerial experience and education, institutional support and desperation for the Egyptian youth to escape unemployment or traditional employment paths, Egyptians are standing out from their neighbors in creativity, risk-taking, and the hard work needed to be your own boss.