Egyptian Health-tech Startup TakeStep Selected to Participate in Web Summit 2019

Egyptian health-tech startup TakeStep will participate as an exhibitor at the world’s largest global technology conference Web Summit 2019 between November 4 and 7 in Lisbon, Portugal, as one of only five African health-tech startups to participate this year at the prestigious summit.

Dubbed the “best technology conference on the planet”, Web Summit 2019 hosts over 1,200 big-name speakers over four days in Portugal’s capital Lisbon, and is expecting over 70,000 attendees. In 2018, the Summit’s team communicated with over 86,000 startups all over the world of which 3,100 joined the event. 

The Cairo-based startup helps addicts recover, and recovering addicts of various kinds from relapsing by leveraging the power of technology to connect the different stakeholders of the addiction process - namely the patients, their families, guardians and specialised doctors. Addicts or recovering addicts request a call from a certified psychiatrist through the web platform, which then allows the doctor to securely contact the patient for an hour-long therapy session - either via phone or video call - and periodic follow up calls are scheduled. TakeStep have also developed a personal recovery indicator which predicts and prevents the recovering addict from relapse. 

“Going to Web Summit is a great achievement for us, because the selection process is extremely difficult. This for us is solid proof that the company is on the right track, and that our vision can become a reality, today we serve over 3,000 regular patients in Egypt, the US and eight MENA countries to actively get over their addiction,” says Mohamed Khashaba, CEO of TakeStep.

The process is anonymous and affordable, largely reaching out to patients in Egypt’s governorates, as well as encouraging female addicts to get in touch and talk about their issues. According to the Ministry of Social Solidarity, 10.4% of Egyptians are drug addicts, of which women comprise almost 30%. To validate their idea, the founders of TakeStep set up shop in New Mexico (US) last year, as the addiction rate there is one of the highest in the world.  

“Not only do they help people quickly and discreetly access professional counselling, they stay engaged throughout the recovery process to prevent relapses,” says the statement on Web Summit’s website.