June 9, 2021: Dawaai, Pakistan’s largest online pharmacy, has closed its $8.5million venture round led by 500 Startups (500) and participation from Sarmayacar and notable family offices.
Other investors in Dawaai include Kingsway Capital, Crimson Seed Capital, Mentors Fund, and strategic angels including unicorn founders, and technology investment bankers. The round brings total financing raised by Dawaai to date to US$ 10.5 million. The funds will be deployed towards building the pharmaceutical supply chain infrastructure in Pakistan and investing in the technology to further optimise the business.
Dawaai, founded in 2014 by Furquan Kidwai, is Pakistan’s largest pharmaceutical marketplace making authentic medicines available at affordable prices to the masses. As the first internationally certified and registered healthcare merchant in Pakistan, Dawaai offers a one-stop solution, via its website and app, that consolidates various aspects of an individual’s health. Some of the other services offered by Dawaai include telehealth, a network of nurses and physiotherapists, and lab testing.
Dawaai has grown by 350% in terms of revenue within a one-year duration. It has also grown exponentially from being a 15-people startup to a 250+ people venture.
Furquan Kidwai, commenting on the round, said “We are laser focused on our mission to make healthcare accessible and affordable for the people of Pakistan and wider South Asia. The first step in achieving that is building the missing pharmaceutical supply chain infrastructure in the markets we operate and honing the next generation of talent to take our economies forward. This financing is enabling us to carry forward on our journey to make the lives of people better across the length and breadth of Pakistan, with a low-cost healthcare model for all Pakistanis.”
So far, Dawaai has served 11 million people all over Pakistan, with successful deliveries in over 98 cities. It allows patients to simply upload their prescriptions and the medicines are delivered at doorstep in as little as 2 hours. All medicines are available at the cheapest possible price thus making it affordable for everyone. On the enterprise end, Dawaai offers MSMEs engaged in the pharma downstream business a one stop shop for their inventory needs at cheapest prices and within a few hours. Thus, saving hundreds of millions of rupees for an average Pakistani in their medical bills.
“In recent years, Furquan and his team have established Dawaai not only as the premier digital health startup in Pakistan, but as a pioneer tech company in a growing startup ecosystem. We are thrilled to continue to back Dawaai as it facilitates access to healthcare to millions of people,” said Tony Wang, Managing Partner at 500 Startups.
The recent surge in technological literacy in Pakistan has only aided, supported, and boosted the online pharmacy’s ability to champion consistent innovation in the healthcare sector.
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