Egypt’s Chefaa raises seven-figure Pre-Series A for its online pharmacy marketplace

Cairo-based on-demand medicine delivery platform has raised a seven-figure (USD) Pre-Series A, it announced today in a statement to MENAbytes without disclosing the exact size of the investment. The money came from 500 Startups (who are following-on), Vision Ventures, Womena, and few other investors. Chefaa had previously raised a six-figure seed 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 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.

Chefaa, serving as a marketplace, when a customer places an order, routes it to the nearest pharmacy who then delivers the medicines to the customers.

It said in a statement that it is helping tens of thousands of chronic patients across Egypt to properly manage their treatment by enabling them 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 to order their medicines, whenever they need them.

The startup that has recently launched its private and white-label products as well, now plans to use the investment to grow its operations team and launch its B2B service to serve SMEs.

Doaa Aref, the co-founder and CEO of Chefaa, said, “Chefaa is merging ecommerce 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 Wentures and Womena, we are focused on scaling efficiently and sustainably.”

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 & 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, 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.”

Update – Jun 14, 2020 – 6:45 PM GMT: The story was updated with a comment of Elissa Freiha.