Egypt’s Grinta raises $8 Million in seed funding

Grinta, an Egyptian B2B digital pharmaceutical platform, has raised $8 million in seed funding to facilitate the growth of its full-stack tech platform, team expansion and growth across the Egyptian market.

The round was co-led by Raed Ventures and Nclude, with participation from investors including Silicon Valley-based Endeavor Catalyst and 500 Global, bringing its total funding to date to $9.5 million. 

According to the fintech’s CEO and co-founder, Mohammed Azab, the startup’s partners are making it possible for the startup to establish its footprint in the pharma market in the country, also further enhancing the penetration of the market by other pharma players.

He said:

“We are very excited to have the right investor base as our backers that share the same values and vision of making Pharma accessible and affordable across Africa. As we plan to expand our footprint in the main Pharma hubs on the continent, we will also enable Egyptian and regional Pharma manufacturers to further penetrate the $50 billion African market.”

Commenting on the new raise, Raed Ventures noted that the company is an exceptional company fixing the gap in the supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry in the country.

“Grinta is an exceptional team of serial healthcare entrepreneurs on a mission to improve access to and affordability of medicines in Egypt and Africa,” 

Wael Nafee, Partner at Raed Ventures. 

“By empowering pharmacies to be more efficient at running their business, fixing a broken supply chain end-to-end, and partnering with all stakeholders in the value chain they will realise this vision. We’re proud to be doubling down on Grinta for this funding round as they expand across Africa”, he added.

Another participant in the funding round, Nclude, expressed excitement about the opportunity to work with Grinta to produce customer-centric products and offer solutions to the pharmaceutical supply chain industry.

“We’re excited to partner with Grinta to help enable their vision of delivering customer-centric, data-driven, and fintech-enabled solutions to modernise the pharmaceutical supply chain in Egypt and beyond,”

“We look forward to supporting the Grinta team on their journey to build a digital and cashless bridge between underserved individual pharmacy owners and all stakeholders across the pharma value chain”,  said Eslam Darwish, Founding General Partner at Nclude. 

Endeavour Catalyst, a participant in the fund round, said they are proud of the partnership since they have always believed that investing in the nation offers worthwhile chances.

 

“Grinta represents our 10th investment in Egypt, making Endeavor Catalyst proudly one of the most active international investors in the country. But more than attracting attention and capital to the region, Mohamed Azab’s latest achievement advances the entire healthcare industry”

Endeavor Catalyst Managing Partner Allen Taylor

“As an Endeavor Entrepreneur and Board Member, we have witnessed how Azab’s multiplier effect has impacted the local ecosystem. Our recent mapping showed that he alone has already inspired, invested, and mentored more than 100 local businesses in the Middle East, and this is only the beginning. We are huge fans of Azab and his team, knowing they can lead the next frontier of innovation in Egypt”, he further added.

By enabling independent pharmacies, Grinta aims to ensure efficiency in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

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More about Grinta

With a size exceeding $6 billion, Egypt has the largest pharmaceuticals market in Africa thanks to its strong local manufacturers, three sizable distributors, and more than 3,000 wholesalers, all of whom are aiming at the country’s 60,000 dispersed retail pharmacies that have not yet been digitalized. 

Grinta, a company founded in 2021 by Mohamed Azab, Yosra Badr, Ali Youssef, and Hamza Mohamed, provides pharmacies with fulfilment, demand planning, and inventory financing in addition to giving them access to the full range of traceable pharmaceutical and medical items from various suppliers.

The end-to-end platform offers access to the whole spectrum of traceable pharmaceutical and medical items from numerous vendors in a simple and user-friendly manner, together with fulfilment, demand planning, and inventory finance.

The business is collaborating with all parties involved in the value chain, including producers, distributors, wholesalers, and pharmacies, to reach its objective.

Azab claims that Grinta has bought two businesses: EME, a software development firm founded in 2021, and PH Store, a comparable digital platform in northern Egypt.

As a result, the company expanded aggressively across seven governorates in Egypt, with over 14,000 registered pharmacies on its platform, 20,000+ SKUs and has delivered more than 100,000 orders over the last year.

Active participants in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, Mohamed Azab, Yosra Badr, Ali Youssef, and Hamza Mohamed have created and scaled a number of healthcare businesses over the past 12 years throughout Africa. The founders have hired about 300 people and attracted impact-driven top talent from different industries.

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