Egypt-based healthtech startup, Vezeeta, which has major operations across Africa and the Middle East, has reportedly laid off 10% of its staff last week.

Although the number of the affected employees isn't clearly stated, multiple sources - especially affected employees, revealed that up to 50 people were laid off.

This update is also coming up after the startup raised $40 million in Series D funding in 2020. The funding that is unarguably one of the joint largest single healthtech rounds in Africa.

According to Vezeeta CEO Amir Barsoum, the healthtech company has received $73 million in total and is generally glorified as one of Africa’s and the Middle East’s soonicorns.  

Launching in 2012 with an "Uber for Ambulance" type of business model, Vezeeta’s business has also evolved to what it is now: a subscription-based doctor booking and consultation platform. According to the startup, as of 2020, Vezeeta was operating in 50 cities across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon with a userbase growth of 3x year-over-year to 4 million patients, and 30,000 healthcare providers using its software-as-a-service solution.

The startup is also said to cater to 10 million patients across 78 cities (including Nigeria and Kenya, its latest addition) via three outpatient touchpoints: doctor consultations, pharmacy and diagnostics. 

Like many healthtech startups in the region and globally, Vezeeta benefited from pandemic-induced funding, and before this news, there was no indication that the 10-year-old company needed to cut costs. But if there’s anything the current venture capital landscape has shown, no sector is immune to layoffs, as startups from real estate, crypto, q-commerce and fintech (among others) laid off more than 16,000 employees just last month.

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There are a few notable examples in the U.S. healthtech space. Earlier this month, Carbon Health, a virtual care provider, laid off 8% of its workforce, citing the need to “adapt to the changing market conditions.” Last week, healthcare unicorn Ro, after recently raising $150 million at a $7 billion valuation, relieved 18% of its staff from their duties to “manage expenses, increase the efficiency of our organization and better map our resources to our current strategy.” Other platforms globally, as reported by Layoffs.fyi, include the likes of PharmEasy, Sami and Truepill. 

Vezeeta is the first major player in Africa and the Middle East to be affected. The healthtech company didn’t release any statements detailing what led to its decision or plans going forward, but affected employees stated reasons Vezeeta probably highlighted in its discussion with staff. One said the layoffs were a result of “disasters in the market,” while another said it was “due to the global market crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.”  

This layoff news is the second coming from an Egypt-born but Dubai-based company in quick succession. In May, publicly-traded mobility startup SWVL announced plans to lay off 32% of its workforce. The company noted changes to its financial realities and the need to implement a portfolio optimization program to “focus on its highest profitability operations, enhance efficiency and reduce central costs.”