Digital health platform, Esaal completes $1.7 million seed round
Esaal will use the new fund to expand across the MENA region, as well as invest in product development, brand development, and talent acquisition.
Esaal, a large technology platform for online health and wellness consultations in the MENA region, has completed the final tranche of its $1.7 million seed funding round, led by A15.
105M people across the MENA region use online services to connect with retailers and professional services every week. With high levels of obesity among adults, particularly in high-income countries such as the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC), Esaal recognises a huge gap in a sizable addressable market.
Additionally, there’s a low supply of doctors unable to meet the rising demand for consultations, and low availability of hospital beds. Also, there’s an increasing mental health crisis with 35% on average of MENA populations experiencing frequent stress and 29% suffering from depression.
Esaal was founded in 2018 to solve the rising health needs in one of the world’s most underserved markets in accessing health and wellness services. The platform delivers a convenient, frictionless and secures wellness service spanning physical health, mental health and nutrition consultations with health professionals via text, video/voice calls and in-person home visits in physical and mental wellness fields like medical, psychiatry, and fitness, diet and nutrition.
GuestStephen Oluwadara Sangolade
Esaal is the only service in the region offering this type of comprehensive integrated, one-stop-shop solution; saving patients time, and money and speedier access to health professionals at the touch of a button.
The health startup’s comprehensive list of health professionals offers consultations on a broad range of issues including anxiety, physiotherapy, paediatrics, nutrition and many more. Available on the iOS and Android app store, users have a convenient range of payment options including Fawry, Vodafone cash or credit card.
Since launching, Esaal has aggregated over 350 consultants covering different fields on the platform who have delivered health and wellness services to almost 1 million unique users; ensuring access to a sizable market for the health experts on the platform.
In addition to providing services to individuals, Esaal also offers an Employee Wellness Programmes for businesses of all sizes and currently serves more than 5000 employees in a range of industries through partnering with 10 mid-large sized companies and has partnered with a number of NGOs to support wellness-related programs.
This round increases the company's total investment to $3 million, which Esaal will use to grow its expansion across the MENA region, as well as invest in product development, brand development, and talent acquisition.
A15 has been backing Esaal since it was founded to solve the rising health needs in one of the world’s most underserved markets in accessing health and wellness services. The startup is focused on expanding its services so that more people across the MENA region can access better holistic health solutions.
Commenting on Esaal’s growth ambitions, Fadi Doss, CEO at Esaal, says, “It’s been an incredible journey building a solution we are supremely passionate about, with the unparalleled support of experienced and strategic investors such as A15, who are literally building this business alongside us, with expertise that has enabled our expansion into key target markets.”
Furthermore, Fadi Doss added, “We have only scratched the surface in an untapped market and are actively working to secure further capital to fuel our continued growth. Esaal has become a name synonymous with trust, quality, and access to health and wellness professionals that can help users obtain better outcomes.”
“There are millions more people across an enormous region that would benefit from our fresh approach to holistic health and we are thrilled to be in a position to keep growing and connecting more health professionals with patients in underserved markets, he added.”
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Karim Beshara, Managing Partner at A15 added, “From the moment we started working with the Esaal team, we knew this was a company with the laser focus and vision to create something truly unique and purpose-driven in its market. They have been prudent in the deployment of capital to date, demonstrating outstanding efficiencies in unit economics, which has enabled their expansion ambitions.
We are proud to see their growth and enjoyed building the business with them throughout the last four years. There is so much more to come from Esaal and this sector, and as they continue to scale across the MENA region, it’s exciting to see not just the significant growth and returns, but the difference the team continues to make with the services they are enabling users to access for better health.”
Esaal was the recipient of the “Best Companies” award at the Health 2.0 conference, held in Dubai, in recognition of the platform’s significant contribution to the field of health and wellness in the region.
The startup’s services are currently available in 8 countries including Egypt, KSA, Tunisia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Palestine and Iraq. The company has registered a 250% Y-o-Y increase in revenue (in 2021) and a 55% jump in users.
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