Egyptian Healthtech Startup Chefaa Raises Six-Figure Seed In 500 Startups-Led Round

Chefaa, a Cairo-based healthtech startup, has raised a six-figure USD funding from 500 Startups. The investment round also included a follow-on made by Flat6Labs and participation from a group of angel investors, according to MENAbytes. 

Chefaa has a mobile application that allows users (patients) to scan their prescriptions in order to access genuine, affordable medicine. The platform also gives its customers daily reminders of their dosage times.

The startup graduated about a year ago from the acceleration cycle of Flat6Labs. It has been able to expand its services to create business solutions for insurance companies, schools, and a host of other institutions.

The company was founded in 2017 by Dr. Doaa Aref – who has a Ph.D. in Business Analysis – and Dr. Rasha Rady – who has a Ph.D. in Pediatrics. Through the app, both founders help patients with chronic diseases to order their medicines and get them delivered at their doorsteps monthly. The app also notifies patients when their drugs are running low on the market for immediate alternative considerations. 

While offering its services for free, the healthtech takes a commission from pharmacies and collects additional profits from monthly subscriptions by medicine companies who use their information. Via database systems, Chefaa offers insights about the entire pharmaceutical market, including locations, availability, unavailability, and places of consumption of medicines. The app also informs about the market share of some medicine companies. 

In roughly one year, the Chefaa now has operations in nine Egyptian cities, generated more than USD 1 Mn in sales, completed over 10,000 orders via its network and has more than 800 pharmacies it is working with. According to Aref, the rate of the users who reuse the service is more than 60 percent. 

With the latest capital injection – which is its second known round of funding – the startup will work on the second release of its app and expand its services all over the North Africa country, beginning with the upper regions. The startup also said it has the intention to take its services global by the end of next year, the first thing of which will be launching in Saudi Arabia.

Doaa Aref is a cancer survivor. She decided to start what is characterized as the first medical data warehouse in the Middle East because of a life experience. She realized there was no easy and fast online service that could help her get her medicine. She also encountered problems while trying to pay for medications online, save supply issues. 

Image Courtesy: Flat6Labs Cairo