Egyptian e-health startup Chefaa raised $5.25 M to expand its operations in Saudi Arabia
A US $5.25 million funding round has been secured by Egyptian startup Chefaa, which offers a pharmacy benefits platform focused on the patient, in order to propel its growth and expansion into Saudi Arabia.
Chefaa, which was founded in 2017 by Drs. Doaa Aref and Rasha Rady, offer a range of services to all parties involved in the healthcare industry and make it simple for users to order, schedule, and refill recurring non-insured and insured prescriptions.
It currently links over a million active users each month to more than 1,100 pharmacies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. After obtaining US $5.25 million in funding from both new and current investors, it is now aiming for faster growth.
Newtown Partners of South Africa and Global Brain of Japan co-led the round, which also included participation from GMS Capital Partners LLC, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, and M3. It will assist Chefaa’s efforts to expand in Saudi Arabia, where it is currently operational in eight cities, and comes after the company’s triumphant launch there.
“Chefaa continues to prioritise market needs in the face of 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 decide 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.
