Share the page
i'SUPPLY: Investors bet on Egypt’s next digital leap
Published on
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the French Development Agency's (AFD) presence in Egypt, journalist Nuria Tesón and photographer Samar Baiomy turn their attention to i'SUPPLY, a digital start-up supported by Proparco. Its ambition is to address the lack of access to suppliers and financing faced by independent pharmacies in Egypt, thereby strengthening access to medicines for millions of people. A report from Al-Hawamidiyya, in the Giza Governorate.
Inside a pharmacy in Al-Hawamidiyya, a patient hands over a prescription. The pharmacist looks at the shelves and drawers, hesitates, and then turns to the computer and begins searching through a digital catalogue. Within seconds, the medicine appears on screen. It’s not available at the pharmacy, but it will be sourced from a supplier across the city and delivered later the same day.
For many patients, the local pharmacy is the first stop for healthcare, but independent drugstores often operate on thin margins and struggle to compete with larger chains that have easier access to distributors and financing. Supply shortages and fragmented distribution networks had made it increasingly difficult for them to keep essential medicines in stock. Using a cloud-based software system, i'SUPPLY allows them to search thousands of medicines from multiple distributors, track their inventory, and process insurance claims digitally.
Digitalization as a driver of modernization in Egypt’s pharmaceutical sector
The mind behind the initiative is Ibrahim Imam, founder of the start-up i'SUPPLY, which aims to digitalize the country’s pharmaceutical supply chain. “Wherever medicine moves, we are trying to digitalize the process. Our goal is to improve the technological infrastructure of the entire pharmaceutical value chain." For the businessman, who spent nearly 25 years working in the pharmaceutical sector before launching the company, the motivation came from seeing the same problem repeated across Egypt: patients searching from pharmacy to pharmacy for medicines that were simply not available. “We know the pain very well. That’s why we focus on the small and medium pharmacies.”
But on top of guaranteeing access to the medicines, Ibrahim Iman’s company offers “working-capital financing”, that allows drugstores to purchase medicines on credit.
One of the biggest challenges pharmacies face is cash flow. When they dispense medicine to patients covered by private insurance, payments from insurers can take up to four months to arrive. Smaller pharmacies cannot afford to wait that long. We finance the claim immediately. The pharmacy receives the value of the invoice while the patient is still in the shop. We take care of the paperwork and collect from the insurance company later.
If the platform reaches its target of 10 000 connected pharmacies, Imam believes it could significantly expand access to medicines nationwide. “In Egypt, we have more than 100 million people, he says. If we connect that many pharmacies, we estimate we could serve around 30% of patients.”
DisrupTech Ventures: An Egyptian Investor, for Egypt
That’s exactly what gave Mohamed Okasha , founder and managing partner of DisrupTech Venture, the confidence he needed to invest in Iman’s project. “We started to support companies that are doing something that was not possible before technology” he says. He describes entrepreneurship as “a brick in the wall”. Alone, each brick seems modest. “Together, they can transform an entire ecosystem”, he explains.
He knows what he’s talking about. An engineer by training, Mohamed Okasha co-founded Egypt’s digital payments pioneer Fawry, a company that built the electronic infrastructure that now allows millions of Egyptians to pay bills, top up mobile credit, or transfer money through thousands of kiosks. When Fawry listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange in 2019, it became the country’s first unicorn, a start-up valued at more than $1bn.
By 2020, he stepped away from his role as managing director to build something different: a next-generation venture capital firm aimed at backing the next generation of Egyptian entrepreneurs. Egypt's leading venture capital fund focuses on investing in early-stage fintech, like iSupply, and fintech-enabled startups. Disruptech Venture's approach is different: they work closely with founders and support them from the earliest stages, helping build companies over time. Their role goes beyond financing: it is about backing exceptional entrepreneurs and shaping the future of financial infrastructure in Egypt and beyond. Its approach, he explains, is hands-on: “capital, mentoring, and access to networks that young companies often lack”.
Proparco: A Catalyst for Fintech Innovation
This work would not be possible without the support of Proparco, the French development finance institution dedicated to financing private-sector initiatives in emerging markets. Proparco has provided funding to DisrupTech Ventures in line with the Group’s objective of strengthening Egypt’s start-up ecosystem and expanding access to financial services and digital infrastructure.
For Mr. Okasha, the impact of these investments goes beyond the companies themselves. Across its portfolio, DisrupTech Ventures' backed startups have already created tens of thousands of jobs while developing innovative tools that make services faster, more affordable, and more accessible. In less than four years, they backed 25 startups, created 31 000 jobs, 40% of which are for women, and served 7 million users, almost 1.1 million small and midsize enterprises, and more than a thousand large corporates, according to Proparco. And those are the assets for the environment that Mohamed Okasha aims to build.
We are pleased to partner with DisrupTech Ventures, which has already become one of the leading early-stage investors in Egypt. Thanks to its company-building track record and domain-specific expertise, DisrupTech is bringing much needed support to young companies in the region. This is in line with Proparco’s strategy to maximize impacts and to finance innovation, by fostering the emergence of a dynamic venture capital industry to back African entrepreneurs.
