Yodawy, an Egyptian-based online pharmacy marketplace, has raised $7.5 million in a Series B funding led by Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Global Ventures, and Algebra Ventures, with the participation of CVentures, P1 Ventures and Athaal Angel Investors Group.
Founded in 2018, Yodawy has pioneered a pharmacy benefit management platform that enables the entire healthcare ecosystem – insurance companies, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical/FMCGs, – to serve a wider customer base faster.
Through Yodawy’s digital infrastructure: patients can have their medicines and personal care products delivered in less than 45 minutes, Insurance companies can automate approvals, generating cost savings and elevate the customer’s experience and pharmacies can benefit from Yodawy’s e-commerce offering, reinforcing their online presence and boosting sales and FMCG companies can tap into Yodawy’s network of over 3,000 pharmacies to put products in the hands of consumers faster than ever.
Over the last four years, Yodawy has rapidly integrated over 3,000 pharmacies and 8 leading health insurance companies. With over 2 million users on its platform, Yodawy fulfilled over 800,000 orders.
Yodawy was the first company in Egypt to partner up with leading health insurance providers including AXA, MedNet, (Munich Re), NextCare (Allianz) and MetLife – global Fortune500 insurance companies-, to enable patients to use their medical insurance cards online and get their prescriptions delivered at home, saving them an otherwise painful process to get their medications.
Yodawy’s marketplace is democratising the distribution of medicine and personal care products – typically distributed by large chains of pharmacies – the platform enables ‘Mom and Pop’ pharmacies to sell their products and boost sales, and benefit from shared services and faster claims settlement.
The startup will use the funding to roll out additional value-adding offerings to its growing network of pharmacies, patients, and health insurers and expand into the other key emerging markets.
Founded by Karim Khashaba, Yasser Abdel Gawad, and Sherief El-Feky, the Company has built an exemplary management team that have worked for some of the world’s largest companies, including Booz & Company, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Yahoo.
Karim Khashaba, Yodawy’s founder and CEO, said: “We are thrilled to have completed this funding round. It comes at a time of huge growth for Yodawy, as we continue to add more pharmacies and insurers to our platform. Yodawy is powering a digital healthcare revolution in Egypt. The digital infrastructure that we have created is breaking down silos and creating a more integrated healthcare system that better serves patients.”
Jad El Boustani, Managing Director at MEVP, said: “We have been following Yodawy closely since its launch and were amazed by the capabilities of its founding team. The Egyptian Healthcare market is massive and very fragmented which puts it in a prime position for disruption. Yodawy is uniquely positioned to digitize the health-tech space by connecting insurance companies, pharmacies, and patients in a seamless and efficient way. At MEVP, we believe that Egypt is one of the most promising markets in the MENA region and look forward to investing in additional amazing opportunities there.”
Amal Enan, Managing Director at Global Ventures, said: “The burden of healthcare expenditures disproportionately fell on Egyptian households for decades. The accelerated growth and commitment to medical insurance today presents an attractive market opportunity for enabling payers and the Pharma-Retail industry where Egyptians are spending a combined
$6BN a year. Yodawy is the only player with both B2C and B2B insurance and pharma products and holds a leading market position with its end-to-end offerings. The business has been hugely successful in Egypt, and we are looking forward to supporting Yodawy as it enters new markets in the MENA region, and beyond.”
Karim Hussein, Partner at Algebra Ventures, said: “Since our initial investment, Yodawy has created an innovative platform for delivering medication and managing claims throughout Egypt. Their unique digital services are essential to powering the next phase of growth of health insurance in Egypt and similar emerging markets. Yodawy has built an exceptional team that has a focused vision, clear market understanding and strong technical capabilities to drive this healthcare transformation. We look forward to further supporting Yodawy’s continued expansion.”
