Dubai investors lead $7.5m funding for Egyptian online pharmacy

Founded in 2018, Yodawy offers an e-commerce marketplace for pharmacies to sell their products. (Supplied)

• It offers products from a network of around 3,000 pharmacies, has around 2 million users and has processed some 800,000 orders in the last four years

DUBAI: Global Ventures and Middle East Venture Partners have led a $7.5 million investment in Yodawy, an Egyptian online pharmacy platform.
Also backing the Series B funding drive were Cairo-based firms Algebra Ventures and CVentures, San Francisco-based P1 Ventures and Saudi Arabia’s Athaal Angel Investors Group.
Founded in 2018, Yodawy offers an e-commerce marketplace for pharmacies to sell their products. Patients can use the service to order medicines and personal care products and have them delivered in less than 45 minutes.
It offers products from a network of around 3,000 pharmacies, has around 2 million users and has processed some 800,000 orders in the last four years.
Founded by Karim Khashaba, Yasser AbdelGawad and Sherief El-Feky, the company boasts a management team with experience at some of the world’s largest companies, including Booz & Company, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Yahoo.
Karim Khashaba, Yodawy’s founder and CEO, said in a statement: “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 health care revolution in Egypt.”
Amal Enan, managing director at Global Ventures, added: “The burden of health care 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 $6 billion a year.”