Egypt-Based Nawah Scientific Cashes In US$23 Million In Series A Round

The Cairo-born, Amsterdam-headquartered deeptech and life sciences company Nawah Scientific has closed a US$23 million Series A funding round, structured as a mix of equity and debt.

The milestone investment comes as the company reflects on a decade of building scientific infrastructure across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and looks ahead to its next phase of expansion. 

The round was led by the MENA-based regional growth-focused investment platform Life Ventures, with participation from Egypt-based early-stage venture capital firm DenVC, Egypt-based private investment and advisory group Empire M, Tunisia-based pan-African private equity firm AfricInvest, and Egypt-based diversified industrial and infrastructure group Elsewedy, alongside banks and angel investors.  

Founded by Omar Shokry Saqr in Egypt in 2015, Nawah operates a cloud lab model that enables researchers and companies to conduct scientific and industrial testing remotely. The fresh capital will be deployed to build a 10,000 sq. m. research and development center in Rwanda, as well as to double laboratory capacity in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and support expansion into North Africa and Europe.  

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, founder and CEO Saqr, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alaa Yassin, and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) Ali Al-Halawany spoke about how the new funding round will help the company deliver on its initial mission, how the life sciences landscape is evolving, and Nawah's next phase of growth.  

For starters, Saqr traced the company’s origins to a structural gap he saw across the region. “Nawah Scientific was founded with a simple but stubborn idea: world-class science shouldn’t be geographically gated," he said. "At the time, billions of dollars’ worth of scientific analysis from MENA and Africa were being shipped to Europe and the US—not because the talent wasn’t here, but because the infrastructure and systems weren’t. Our core mission is to empower cutting-edge science, serve academia and industry, leveraging our expertise and resources to enable scientific innovation, safer life, and a cleaner environment for generations to come.” 

What began as an effort to build advanced laboratories quickly evolved into a broader rethink of access to scientific services. “We started by building advanced laboratories, but quickly realized that the real bottleneck wasn’t equipment—it was access,” Saqr said. “So, we built Nawah as a cloud lab: an online platform where researchers, companies (e.g., pharma, food, and agri), and institutions can request experiments, ship samples, and receive validated results digitally, without needing their own labs.” 

Today, Nawah is headquartered in Amsterdam, with operations across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Poland, and is currently expanding its footprint into Rwanda and the UAE. Its operations span four business units: life science research, which provides testing and research services; food and agriculture, which focuses on safety and quality testing for producers and exporters; pharma, which supports research, development, and formulation for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies; and finally, the certified reference materials (CRM) unit, which produces materials used for calibration, method validation, and quality control across laboratories and regulated industries.  

Over the past decade, Nawah has tested more than one million samples, and it currently employs 160 researchers, serving clients in more than 30 countries. The company’s scale and track record played a central role in attracting a diverse group of backers, with Yassin noting that the composition of the round points to a convergence between Nawah’s operational maturity and current market conditions.

“What convinced such a diverse group of investors isn’t a single narrative—it’s timing plus proof,” Yassin explained. “At this stage, Nawah is no longer a vision-stage company. We're profitable, we've analyzed one million-plus samples, served 6,000-plus clients across 20 countries, and built one of the most internationally accredited lab platforms in the MENA and Africa, including rare United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-level recognition.” 

Yassin noted that different investor profiles were drawn to various aspects of the business. “Equity investors see a scalable, asset-efficient platform with strong margins," he explained. "Debt providers see predictable cash flows and disciplined operations. Institutional and strategic backers see something rarer: infrastructure that quietly underpins pharma, food security, healthcare, and agriculture at a regional scale.” Yassin also said that broader market dynamics are also helping to validate Nawah’s model. “This moment matters because the market is finally aligned," he said. "Governments want localization. Pharma wants speed and cost efficiency. Global players want access to Africa without building from scratch. Nawah sits exactly at that intersection—and we’ve already done the hard execution work.” 

Looking ahead, the company believes structural shifts in global life sciences will further reinforce its positioning. Al-Halawany pointed to three trends he expects to shape the next five years. “First, research and testing will continue to decouple from geography," he said. "Cloud labs, remote execution, and digital quality assurance systems will replace the idea that innovation must live next to expensive physical infrastructure. Second, regulatory convergence will accelerate. Markets that can meet FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA), and World Health Organization (WHO) standards locally will dominate outsourcing flows. Accreditation is becoming a competitive weapon, not a checkbox. Third, science will move closer to industry timelines, not academic ones—faster turnaround, integrated services, and outcome-driven research. Nawah fits squarely into that future. We’re building a distributed network of elite hubs, supported by light-footprint collection offices, allowing us to scale across regions without overbuilding assets. Think of it less as a lab company—and more as scientific infrastructure as a service for emerging markets.” 

As Nawah enters its second decade, Saqr emphasized that building a deeptech company in the region requires a different mindset from more conventional startups. Reflecting on his journey, he offered pointed advice to new founders. “Build credibility before storytelling," he said. "In deeptech and scientific services, especially in MENA and Africa, shortcuts don’t compound—reputation does. Invest early in quality systems, documentation, compliance, and people who are better than you. It’s slower, more painful, and less Instagram-friendly—but it’s the only way institutions and global partners will trust you. Also, don’t wait for the ecosystem to be 'ready.' If we had waited for perfect regulations, perfect funding, or perfect talent pools, Nawah wouldn’t exist. Build anyway. The ecosystem tends to catch up to companies that execute consistently. Science rewards patience—but markets reward those who stay standing long enough to matter." 

Pictured in the lead image is Nawah Scientific's team at the company's tenth anniversary. Image courtesy Nawah Scientific.