Egypt’s biggest healttech startup raises second $1m round

• Startup has plans to expand out of pharmaceuticals to food, agriculture, and petrochemical industries.

The onset of Covid-19 has accelerated digital transformation in the healthcare space in the Middle East region and has seen a boost in the funding activity in a number of remote telehealth and online booking platforms, illustrating the shift from face-to-face services to the truly digital world we are now living in.

Egyptian-based healthtech startup – Nawah Scientific – has closed a second “Pre-Series A” fundraise of $1 million in a combined equity and debt capital round, thereby, raising its total funding to $2 million and maintains its position as the most funded life science venture in Middle East and North Africa.

The startup has plans to close a significant “Series A round” later this year. 

Egypt had surpassed the UAE in 2019 in the number of deals and has ranked number one by the number of deals in the first half of 2020 (25 per cent) and number by total funding (19 per cent).

The funding was funded by Egypt Ventures and joined by the Alexandria Fund, Cairo Angels, Alex Angels, HULT Alumni Angels, and several international angel investors.

Empowering scientific research

“Our work has significantly empowered the scientific society in Egypt and we are expanding next year to surrounding countries with an aggressive plan to cover MENA and Africa in the foreseeable future,” Dr. Omar Sakr, Founder of Nawah, said.

Moreover, Nawah is now an integral part of the Pharma industry in Egypt with hundreds of samples flowing for analysis, routine check or formulations requiring improvement by Nawah pharmaceutical formulation team.

Founded in 2015, Nawah has analysed over 50,000 samples from more than 3,000 clients in nine countries.

 “We have a clear mandate to support exceptional Egyptian startups bringing actual value to the Egyptian community. We have witnessed Nawah firsthand and we have seen how they deliver on their promise to empower scientific research in the entire MEA region and we are thrilled to be part of their journey as they scale their offerings,” Ahmed Gomaa, Egypt Ventures CEO, said.

Nawah has future plans of expanding out of pharmaceuticals to food, agriculture, and petrochemical industries – which are all known to depend heavily on quality control tests.