Vezeeta, an Egyptian healthcare platform that lets people make appointments with doctors and order services online or at home, has raised new money to buy other companies and expand in the Middle East and Africa. The company raised a Series D funding round of $40 million in February 2020.
Gulf Capital, based in Abu Dhabi, and VNV Global (formerly Vostok New Ventures), based in Sweden, were the first investors. According to a report, Vezeeta has managed to acquire around $90 million so far, and it is currently in negotiations regarding acquisitions in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as revealed by a company official.
Over the last ten years, Vezeeta’s digital healthcare platform has changed to meet the needs of its users. The platform’s original solution for booking doctor’s appointments turned into a central hub for digital outpatient services through dynamic and ambitious product and business diversifications, which helped patients, healthcare providers, and the entire healthcare ecosystem.
This support and funding will “allow us to embark on a new path of development, to expand our innovation to more people in the MEA region”, said Amir Barsoum, Amir Barsoum, Founder and CEO at Vezeeta.
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It took seven years for our healthcare marketplace to earn the credibility of five million patients. Our digital provider sector, which includes online pharmacies and clinics that are run digitally, reached the same milestone in less than two years.
This amazing feat is a testament to our people’s hard work and dedication; our partners from doctors’ offices, clinics, pharmacies, and labs; and, of course, our shareholders and investors, without whom this would not have been possible. Today, I am especially grateful to Gulf Capital and VNV Global for their help and investments, which allow us to grow and bring our innovations to more people in the MEA region. “
Investors’ view on the company’s progress and prospect
Alvaro, who is the Managing Director of Private Equity at Gulf Capital, says, “Since the beginning of our relationship with Vezeeta, we have shared a vision of making health care in our region more accessible and efficient through health-tech innovation.” We are happy with what Amir Barsoum and the rest of the Vezeeta team have done so far, which includes constantly reimagining the future of healthcare and making money by 2022.
Vezeeta is now the largest health-tech platform in the Middle East and Africa, serving more than 10 million patients in 80 cities. “Egypt is a very important market for us, and we just opened our regional headquarters in Cairo with the goal of continuing to help companies like Vezeeta grow and succeed.”
Björn von Sivers, Investment Manager at VNV Global, asserts that “Over the years, we have witnessed Vezeeta’s progress to become a market leader with its best-in-class product and differentiated business model while simultaneously generating value for its patients and stakeholders.”
Now, Given the ubiquity of digitization throughout the whole healthcare landscape in the Middle East and Africa, now is the moment for Vezeeta to rapidly scale up its unique solutions at scale whilst proactively addressing the day-to-day challenges faced by millions of points’ mission to revolutionize healthcare.
Vezeeta innovative development services in Egypt
In response to how the pandemic changed the healthcare industry, Vezeeta put in place a number of key growth drivers to keep going and make money.
The “Doctor’s Subscription Model” is Vezeeta’s first big step toward a subscription-based SaaS model. It gives more than 35,000 practitioners access to a wider range of digital healthcare solutions. These packages reduce expenses for cutting-edge technologies, making healthcare digitalization faster and more efficient.
With Vezeeta’s Pharmacy Solution, customers in Egypt’s major populous cities can have prescriptions delivered to their homes within an hour. With the addition of e-prescriptions and geo-location monitoring, the system has grown to include Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria, and the number of drug orders placed through it has increased by five times.
The company’s various technological solutions are being tested in 20 locations around Egypt to revolutionize the contemporary healthcare experience for patients. Throughput and productivity at the platform’s sites have grown, and the platform’s medical professionals and clinical partners are seeing greater efficiency as a result. Its existing extensive healthcare services in Cairo and Giza were enhanced with the two-hour lab sample collection solution to provide patients with even more convenient and stress-free access to medical treatment.
Ultimately, Vezeeta is increasing profitability with this additional round of funding, which will enable the company to accelerate the rollout of its product roadmap and pursue alternative growth opportunities, such as M&A, throughout the Middle East and Africa. This change exemplifies the platform’s dedication to providing users with cutting-edge health-tech solutions that improve the lives of both patients and healthcare professionals.
