Egyptian health tech Yodawy raises $16M

Without proper government-led public health initiatives, healthcare expenditures, including insurance and pharmaceutical drugs, can burden individuals and households. In recent years, private institutions have played a massive part in the considerable uptake of medical insurance and medicines and also in lowering the costs of getting them across Egypt, the largest producer of pharmaceuticals across the MENA region whose pharma market is set to reach $6 billion in value this year. The Global Ventures–backed Yodawy is one such private player, and the pharmacy benefits manager has raised a $16 million Series B round.

The UAE-based and MEA-focused venture capital firm co-led this round alongside Delivery Hero Ventures, the venture arm of the global food delivery platform Delivery Hero, which has now made its first check in Africa. Singapore-based AAIC Investment and Saudi’s Dallah Al-Baraka also participated in this round. Existing investors who participated in the digital healthcare’s $7.5 million Series A round in 2019 include Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), C Ventures, and P1 Ventures also doubled down.

Co-founder and CEO Karim Khashaba told TechCrunch that the health tech startup plans to use the investment to expand across markets in the Middle East and Africa, where the pharma market is a $60 billion market opportunity. Yodawy’s journey in Egypt started in 2018 when Khashaba founded the company with COO Yasser AbdelGawad and CTO Sherief El-Feky. They built an infrastructure that accommodates the services of its partners — insurance companies, medical providers, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical/FMCG companies — and connects them with business clients and individuals.