Cairo-based on-demand medicine delivery platform Chefaa has raised a seven-figure pre-Series A investment, the company said in a statement to MENAbytes without disclosing the exact size of the investment. The money came from 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Womena, and few other investors. Chefaa had previously raised six-figure seed funding from 500 Startups, Flat6Labs, and a few angel investors in August last year.
Founded in 2017 by Doaa Aref and Dr. Rasha Rady, Chefaa connects patients and pharmacies, enabling chronic patients to schedule, order, and refill their recurring prescriptions as well as purchase other non-pharmaceutical products from pharmacies through its web or mobile apps. The Egyptian startup claims to have fulfilled hundreds of thousands of orders to date.
When a customer places an order, Chefaa routes it to the nearest pharmacy, which then delivers the medicines to the customers.
The company said in a statement that it is helping tens of thousands of chronic patients across Egypt to properly manage their treatment by providing the means to easily order their medicines on a regular basis. Chefaa focuses on chronic patients with repeat orders, but its platform is also open for anyone with a prescription.
The startup recently launched its own private and white-label products as well, and now plans to use the investment to grow its operations team and launch a B2B service to serve SMEs.
Doaa Aref, the co-founder and CEO of Chefaa, said, “Chefaa is merging e-commerce with the pharmaceutical industry and positioning itself to lead the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry. With the capital we have just raised, and support of partners like 500 Startups, Vision Ventures and Womena, we are focused on scaling efficiently and sustainably.”
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Dr. Rasha Rady, the co-founder and COO of the startup, said, ”We take pride in serving our growing base of users as well as managing their pharmacy needs. We have built our customer care center to ensure that user experience is being managed professionally. We also understand the impact of chronic illness as well as chronic patients’ needs, and we intend to launch new services all designed around making their lives easier.”
Hasan Haider, managing partner of 500 Startups MENA (500 Falcons), said, “In the current environment, any startup that can improve people’s lives and assist in social distancing measures is doing a service to all of us. We’re happy to be supporting Chefaa in providing people with a more efficient way to get their medication. The team behind Chefaa have done an exemplary job in executing their goals in a very short period of time, and we look forward to their ongoing success.”
Kais Al Essa, founding partner and CEO of Vision Ventures, said, “Health and personal care are basic needs for all humans. Our investment into Chefaa plays a part in ensuring that more people have easy access to basic medicine and personal care products. The team behind Chefaa has shown a deep understanding of the field that translated into great growth. We are glad to be part of their ambitious journey.”
Elissa Freiha, founder and managing director of Womena, said, “The team behind Chefaa is one of the most impressive, hard-working teams I have ever seen in my tenure as an investor in this region. It has been inspiring to watch them overcome every hardship that they face, especially throughout their participation in our Womentum Accelerator in 2019, we saw unwavering progress and determination that made them one of the most sought after deals at Demo Day. With this round, we’re excited to see Chefaa continue to carve out their path and define entrepreneurship in this region’s post-COVID narrative.”
This article first appeared on MENAbytes.
