UAE –Altibbi, a healthcare platform, announced that it has raised US$44 million in Series B funding, which it will use to expand the platform’s offering into online pharmacy and diagnostics.
It is considered to be the largest single financing round for a regional digital Health company.
The round witnessed participation from a number of strategic and financial investors and was led by Foundation Holdings, Hikma Ventures and existing investors Global Ventures and DASH Ventures. and was heavily oversubscribed.
“Our objective is to support Altibbi to reach a superior position where its quality, exponential growth and trusted brand will enable them to be the first publicly listed digital health unicorn IPO in the GCC,” Foundation Holdings Chief Executive Abhishek Sharma said in the statement, referring to the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
Altibbi, which was founded in Jordan but now has its headquarters in Dubai, bills itself as the Arab world’s first and largest digital healthcare platform.
It announced its Egyptian launch in December, with plans to conduct 2 million consultations in the country by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
According to a company statement, the funding will be used to expand growth in the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian markets. It will also expand the platform’s offering to include online pharmacy and diagnostics collection.
According to Altibbi, 400 million people in the Arab world are currently lacking basic healthcare facilities such as access to a doctor or medical information.
Digital healthcare innovations are key for supporting Saudi Vision 2030 and Altibbi will also increase its investments in machine learning to further support doctors in providing more precise diagnostics, referrals and prescriptions.
The remote healthcare market in the Middle East and North Africa is projected to reach around US$2 billion in 2024, it said.
Jason Kothari, senior advisor at Foundation Holdings, will be joining the Altibbi Board.
Meanwhile, Altibbi has collaborated on a blood plasma project with Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population.
The national project to establish blood plasma donations for medicine production will help to produce medicines and treat burns or pathological conditions such as kidney, liver, blood, and chronic diseases.
To encourage Egyptian citizens to donate, Altibbi, the largest Arabic medical encyclopedia, will provide free, unlimited medical consultations for one year and will publish promotional information on its platform.
Liked this article? Sign up to receive our regular email newsletters, focused on Africa and World’s healthcare industry, directly into your inbox. SUBSCRIBE HERE
