The Patient-centric pharmacy platform Chefaa announced it secured $5.25 million in a strategic leap from new and existing investors, according to a statement.

The funding was co-led by Newtown Partners (South Africa) and Global Brain (Japan), with GMS Capital Partners LLC (US), Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (Nigeria), as well as M3, Inc. (Japan).

Founded in 2017 by Doaa Aref and Rasha Rady, Chefaa connects more than one million monthly active users to more than 1,100 pharmacies across Egypt and KSA and has +800K mobile app downloads.

“The company continues to prioritize market needs in the face of the continuous challenges. This has resulted in designing new services and features with our eyes on our mission & vision. We focus on measuring Chefaa’s impact as we grow. We are thrilled that our investors share our passion and believe in our vision & mission” Doaa Aref, CEO of Chefaa.

“The main mission for Chefaa remains leading the safe digital transformation of healthcare through a patient-centric, comprehensive approach,” 

The investment comes after the platform successful launch of operations in KSA where Chefaa is now operating in 8 Saudi cities. Moreover, this strategic funding will support Chefaa’s efforts to scale all models designed to digitize the supply chain, and empower industry stakeholders, which inevitably reflects on users’ experience and boosts compliance with treatment. 

“Our follow-on investment in Chefaa via DP World’s Innovation Venture Fund reflects our continued conviction that we have a capable set of entrepreneurs in Doaa and Rasha making excellent progress in the massive opportunity to improve healthcare access in GCC and SSA by digitizing healthcare user interfaces,” said Llew Claasen, Managing Partner, Newtown Partners.

“As we have seen solid growth in this tough business climate since 2022, we truly believe that Chefaa is becoming the uppermost patient-centric service provider in the region. We are delighted to decide to have an additional investment and prepared to continuously back the team to further enhance the accessibility of medical services,” said Hiroto SORITA Director, Investment Group, Global Brain Corporation.

“The startup has made significant strides in improving healthcare accessibility in Egypt, and we are particularly excited about their entry into the Saudi market. Since our initial investment, Chefaa has consistently demonstrated a commitment to innovation and skillfully leveraged data to forge impactful partnerships with large pharmaceutical players. 

“This follow-on investment underscores our confidence in Chefaa’s innovative strategies to reshape the future of healthcare delivery in the region,” said Yezan Haddadin, CEO of GMS Capital Partners LLC.

“Chefaa is uniquely positioned to transform the retail pharmaceutical supply chain in Africa. We firmly believe that with their wide-ranging product offerings serving multiple stakeholders, Chefaa will become a critical business infrastructure for pharmaceutical supply chains in Egypt and the broader Gulf region,” said Ryosuke (Rio) Yamawaki, Partner at VEROD-KEPPLE AFRICA VENTURES, and he emphasized the firm’s focus on investing in category-defining African start-ups.