Chefaa: How Two Best Friends Created Egypt’s Foremost Pharmacy App

“My dream is that the word ‘Chefaa’ will be a verb, just like ‘Google’, says Chefaa Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Rasha Rady. “Anytime you think about safely getting your prescription, whether it’s a one-off, on-demand, or scheduled, or recurring order, I want people to say, ‘Did you Chefaa it today?’” It might sound like a lofty dream, but in just over two years the app (and its web version) has garnered over 1.5 million monthly active users, processing sales worth over $8 million dollars. “Since April 2018, we’ve signed on around 960 pharmacies. We cover the whole of Egypt, in 26 governorates and in 52 cities, to be precise. We’ve processed more than 600,000 orders,” adds Co-Founder and CEO Doaa Aref. 

The bubbly best friends have put everything they have and dedicated their time entirely to getting Chefaa off the ground. And their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, as they just secured a massive seven-figure pre-seed round, helping them develop their unique products and services further. “When we first started there were around 14 or 15 apps that have the same mission of delivering medicine, but with different visions and different models. The whole idea for us was to find what we can do differently, and that will help us take faster steps in the market,” explains Aref. By testing their app with the people who need it most, namely elderly and non-tech savvy patients or caregivers, they’ve released several iterations of Chefaa, gradually refining, and eventually nailing the user experience to make their product stand out.

“We are preparing, on the legal, operational, and technical levels, to expand to Saudi Arabia,” reveals Dr. Rady in this exclusive interview. Check out the full video: