Grinta, a Cairo-based B2B pharmaceutical marketplace led by Egyptian entrepreneur and angel investor Mohamed Azab, has raised $8 million in seed funding from investors as it prepares to scale its operations and strengthen its infrastructure and presence throughout the region.
Raed Ventures, a Saudi Arabia-based venture capital firm that invests in seed and early-stage startups, and Nclude, an investment firm focused on fintech innovation and financial inclusion, co-led the $8-million seed funding round.
As part of its strategic expansion plans to broaden its presence in Egypt and the region, Grinta will use the funding to scale its full-stack tech platform, grow its team, and accelerate growth across the Egyptian market.
Azab, co-founder and CEO of Grinta, said the startup is excited to have the right investor base that shares Grinta’s values and vision of making pharmaceutical products accessible and affordable across Africa.
He went on to state that the funding, which is aligns with Grinta’s strategic expansion plans on the continent, will allow Egyptian and regional pharmaceutical manufacturers to further penetrate the $50-billion African pharmaceutical market.
Grinta, which was founded in 2021 by Egyptian entrepreneurs and angel investors Azab, Yosra Badr, Ali Youssef, and Hamza Mohamed, is a managed marketplace that is modernizing the pharmaceutical supply chain by empowering independent pharmacies across Africa with artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
Its end-to-end platform provides a seamless and user-friendly experience, allowing access to a full range of traceable and trackable pharmaceutical and medical products from multiple vendors, as well as inventory financing and automation.
Since its inception a year and two months ago, Grinta has now raised $9.50 million from investors, and acquired two companies, PH Store, a similar digital platform in northern Egypt, and EME, a software development company with a strong tech team.
As a result of its rapid expansion, the startup is now present in seven governorates in Egypt, with more than 14,000 registered pharmacies on its platform. It has also enabled 20,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) to deliver over 100,000 orders in the last year.
