EGYPT – Nawah Scientific, an Egypt-based Healthtech startup, has secured undisclosed funding from the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF) as part of its ongoing Series A round to maintain its compelling growth and onboarding new projects.

Having concluded a US$1 million pre-Series A round early last year, Nawah is now working on a Series A and to that end has secured capital from CASF, a micro venture capital fund that invests in early-stage startups in the Middle East and Africa.

The first private multidisciplinary research center begun 2021 with US$1 million in additional funds from its pre-series A round early 2020 after the Cairo Angels network first invested in Nawah Scientific.

It grew its analytical facilities by five times in 2020 and has aggressive plans to expand into more verticals such as the food, agriculture and petrochemical industries which depend heavily on quality control tests.

During 2020, Nawah Scientific developed formulas for skin-friendly sanitizers which resulted in them being awarded a local grant of US$125,000 to develop testing technology for COVID-19. The year before, it won second place at the 2019 Africa’s Business Heroes competition.

Nawah Scientific is an Egyptian online platform that enables scientific and medical research in the region by providing its services to individual scientists and institutions through an online platform as well as a world-class caliber of scientists and a strong logistic network.

Founded in 2015, it receives scientific experiment requests, collects samples, conducts tests and returns results digitally.

It aims to enable scientists to conduct higher quality research, regardless of their location and owned lab facilities.

Moreover, it elaborates on its website that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region “is full of bright-minded scientists who were just unfortunate to find themselves trapped in labs without sufficient technology to fulfill their research potential”.

The Cairo-based health tech startup’s founder revealed plans for the company’s expansion with an aggressive plan to cover MENA and Africa in the foreseeable future.

“Our business model democratizes research by enabling scientists, regardless of their location and lab facilities to step in and tackle meaningful research questions,” said Dr Omar Sakr, founder and CEO of Nawah Scientific.

The startup has established itself as an integral part of Egypt’s pharmaceutical industry and has so far analyzed over 200,000 samples from clients in 12 countries.

“We had the honour of having individual angel investors from the Cairo Angels network as early investors. Now, Cairo Angels come with their Syndicate Fund to double down on the success we have built together,” remarked Dr Omar Sakr.

Cairo Angels network as early investors have provided Nawah with capital, networking, support and faith in the startup’s mission.

“Not only has Dr Omar built an amazing, globally competitive and impactful business, but he has created a virtuous cycle for top scientists from Egypt to also succeed at home,” said Aly El Shalakany, CEO of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund.

He added that Nawah is perfectly set to serve a huge market in the Middle East and Africa and Cairo investors were happy to have Nawah among our very first investments of our early-stage ventures.

“Dr Omar is a perfect example of what I call “brain regain”, a super talented and ambitious founder who we would have lost in previous years to North America or Europe were it not for the recent changes that have made it possible for entrepreneurs to succeed at home,” asserted Aly El Shalakany.

Not only has Dr Omar built a globally competitive and impactful business but he has also created a virtuous cycle for top scientists from Egypt to also succeed at home.

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