Egypt’s Health Startup Vezeeta Lays Off 10 Percent Of Workers

Egyptian health-tech startup Vezeeta has reportedly laid off around ten percent of its workforce. According to various LinkedIn posts, a handful of which came from employees the startup laid off, about 50 people were let go.

Per its LinkedIn page, Vezeeta has around 500 employees, making the number of employees it laid off an estimated 10 percent. The Egypt and Dubai-based company operates a subscription-based doctor booking and consultation model. When it launched in 2012, the company operated a “Uber for Ambulance” model which it eventually evolved from.

The latest development comes as various companies around the world are reducing their workforce and halting hiring new talents. Companies like Tesla, Coinbase, mobility startup SWVL, etc., have either halted hiring or cut down on their workforce.

Back in 2020, the startup secured $40 million in Series D funding and as of that time, Vezeeta’s CEO Amir Barsoum said the company had raised a total of $72 million in funding across rounds. The company also revealed it was operational in 50 cities across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon adding that its user base had experienced 3x growth YoY to 4 million patients. It also said it had 30,000 healthcare providers using its software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution.

Vezeeta currently has 10 million patients that it caters to across 78 cities including Nigeria and Kenya which it expanded into quite recently. Like many other, Vezeeta’s astronomical growth can be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

Like many other companies that have laid off workers, the current macroeconomic realities, inflation, market uncertainties, the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, etc., may be responsible for Vezeeta’s latest action.

Vezeeta is yet to release an official statement saying that it has laid off workers or a statement detailing why it embarked on the decision.