Saudi Arabia-based telehealth start-up Cura has closed a SAR15 million ($4m) series A investment round from ELM and Wa’ed, the entrepreneurship arm of Saudi Aramco.
The company plans to use the funds to improve the patient journey and introduce further services for both individual users and partnering clients, such as collecting blood samples from homes, and providing integrable employee health benefits with insurance companies.
“We aim to help redefine the model of care in which patients access health care services in Saudi and move towards a digital-first approach where seeing a doctor online becomes people’s first choice and to move as many health services as possible to be at patients’ hands.” Said Wael Kabli, CEO and founder of Cura.
Established in 2016 by software engineers Kabli and Mohammad Zekrallah, Cura became the first Saudi-based platform to launch on-demand online health and wellness services. It empowered its users with real-time messaging, voice and video technologies, instant consultations with a doctor 24/7, online e-prescriptions, and extended six-eight weeks wellness programs to advise on depression, stress, chronic illnesses, nutrition, and other lifestyle-related issues.
“It’s definitely exciting times for the digital health industry in the region nowadays, especially post Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen tremendous month-over-month growth during the lockdown and we can’t wait to keep innovating our technology and services to help people in-need live their healthiest and most convenient life-style we can possibly offer them.” said Zekrallah, co-founder and CTO at Cura.
With more than 4,500 doctors registered in the platform, Cura has been able to assist around 350,000 users since 2016, of whom the majority live in the kingdom. Meanwhile, the start-up’s popularity has been growing worldwide to represent five percent of its overall customers, as the founders reveal plans for international expansion in the next three-to-five years.
This is the third investment round for Cura after two rounds of SAR6.5m ($1.7m) investment made by Enmaa Saudi Business Information Technology (ESBIT) from 2016 to 2018.
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