Investing in Vezeeta: transforming the healthcare experience in MENA

We are leading a 45 million SAR investment round in Vezeeta – the leading digital healthcare platform in MENA connecting patients with healthcare providers and health services. The financing will be used to fund Vezeeta’s continued regional expansion and for further investments in key new products.

Healthcare is one of the most promising sectors in MENA, with robust annual growth and a value expected to reach $100+billion in 2020. The sector is currently undergoing a transformation driven by the rapid technological adoption across the region.

Vezeeta provides consumers with the ability to discover and book medical appointments and health services improving healthcare access for millions and increasing the efficiency of the sector. Empowering patients through data is Vezeeta’s mission to MENA. It also provides innovative SaaS solutions that utilize cloud computing and big data to empower patients and doctors; building the infrastructure needed for the development of the broader healthcare ecosystem.

Vezeeta has managed 3 million bookings in the region, served 2.5 million consumers/patients, and connected more than 10,000 doctors in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

We love to support capable founders who are transforming major industries. Upon meeting Amir and Vezeeta’s management team, it was immediately apparent to us that they are on such a mission. We believe Amir and the Vezeeta team have built what can potentially elevate the healthcare experience in the region and are ready to scale.

Vezeeta was founded by Amir Barsoum who worked as a management consultant at one of the top global firms, advising public and private clients across Europe and MENA with a focus on the healthcare sector. Amir also led the development of the MENA strategy for one of the largest multi-national pharmaceutical companies in the world. We are excited to be partnering with Amir and his team on the mission of providing a better healthcare experience using technology in MENA.

Our co-investors in the round are BECO Capital, Crescent Enterprises Ventures, Silicon Badia, and Vostok New Ventures.

Investing in Telfaz11: betting on the region’s digital media industry

We are leading a 33.75M SAR investment round in Telfaz11 — our first investment in the Region's digital media space

This deal represents one of our first steps towards investing in a new media industry for MENA. The digital revolution transformed how content is generated and consumed globally, and the rules of the game in the media space are changing at an accelerating rate; especially in our region. We believe that empowering leading players in the digital media ecosystem —connecting areas spanning digital distribution platforms to original content creation engines— is an inevitability and one that comes with a tremendous opportunity.

The demand side of the media market is strong: MENA is the second largest region globally in terms of views for some of the world’s largest video platforms. Additionally, the growth in online video demand is among the highest worldwide when compared to global averages (Saudi Arabia has the highest views per capita globally). Moreover, the majority of these views occur on smart devices (Saudi Arabia is on par with advanced nations such as South Korea and the US when it comes to consuming content on smart devices). This a great demand-side story.

On the flip side, we think the market’s supply side is relatively weak compared to such strong regional demand. Moreover, many traditional broadcasting and content companies, even globally, are trying to catch up with changes in the space. Dealing with disruption is hard but there are emerging vehicles that proved to have the right vision and capabilities to create new forms of value in this new media landscape.

Telfaz11 is one of those vehicles we believe in and in its founders. Founded in 2011 in Riyadh by Alaa Faden, Ali Al Kalthami, and Ibrahim Al Khairallah, Telfaz11 was consistently able to create high quality original content and leverage digital tools and distribution platforms. They have also done that in a way that reflects a deep understanding of the industry’s new dynamics and the needs and opportunities of the regional audiences and market. Today, we announce leading an investment round of 33.75M SAR to accelerate the company’s growth and scale-up plans.

This is our first step. We still have so much to do but we see the size of the opportunity and the building blocks that can be connected and fueled to create new media champions for the region.