Flat6Labs Cairo, Afropreneurs, Jedar Capital, OQAL Angel Investors, UI Investments, and several angel investors helped Egyptian health-tech firm Otida secure $340,000 in a pre-seed round headed by Lofty Inc., a Texas-based VC.
Otida, originally “InstadDiet,” was founded in 2021 by Ahmed Tawfic and Ayman Mostafa as an app that serves as a nutritionist, fitness coach, and physician, among other things, for diabetic people who struggle to go through their daily life.
This round will aid in the productization of Otida’s activities as well as the expansion of distribution to cover more patients.
Otida’s business concept depends upon the demands of diabetic patients, according to Ahmed Tawfic, the company’s founder and CEO.
With the advanced technology they are surrounded by nowadays, he believes it is unreasonable that diabetic patients are still trying to find the correct treatment regimen for their specific condition.
To build the finest tailored treatment model for each user on the app, Otida collects a minimum of 100 data points per patient, every day.
Otida’s solution is a technology-based care model that uses the most up-to-date recommendations to deliver the most efficient treatment.
Patients who sign up for Otida receive gadgets that test blood sugar levels every 15 minutes and send data to the cloud instead of needing to prick their fingers with an antiquated blood sugar monitor.
This is in addition to information gathered from patients, such as food consumed, medications prescribed, and lab tests performed on a regular basis.
The app learns a lot about the patient’s diet, glycemic reactions to various foods and drugs, lifestyle, and behavior in order to return with the best-fitting treatment model.
Each patient is allocated a trainer who is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Otida also teaches its patients about their specific diseases, including how to assess insulin and blood levels and how to use that information to better their lifestyles.
Otida stood by and observed as this technological solution transformed many lives. Otida was able to reverse diabetes in type 2 patients using cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated data analytics.
Mona AbdelMoteleb, Otida’s Medical Director, stated that Otida has type 2 diabetic patients who were insulin-dependent, but with Otida’s help, they were able to quit taking insulin and stop relying on drugs altogether.
The company aspires to be a companion for diabetic patients who want to live a normal, joyful life.
The Otida team is broken down into the following departments: a technology department that is responsible for both development and product management; a nutrition department comprised of nutritionists and dieticians who study each patient’s reaction to food and place appropriate plans for them; a medical department comprised of endocrinologists and other relevant specialties; a customer support department comprised of agents who answer questions and requests from patients; and data analysis.
Techbuild’s Take
Diabetes has just been deemed a global disease due to its unparalleled scope. In reality, diabetes affects one out of every ten people on the planet; 90% of them with type 2 diabetes, which is frequently lower than type 1 but can still lead to serious health problems including heart disease and stroke.
Furthermore, it is believed that every 30 seconds, a lower limb or portion of a lower limb is damaged as a result of diabetes somewhere on the planet.
Egypt, which ranks ninth in the world in terms of the diabetic population, is dealing with a rapidly expanding health crisis that is wreaking havoc on morbidity, death, and healthcare resources. Kuwait is rated third, with a prevalence rate of about 25% among adults.
The present diabetes care strategy is poor, reactive to symptoms, lacks personalization, relies primarily on drugs, and places all of the blame on doctors.
This is an antiquated technique that Otida seeks to change because the current diabetes treatment strategy is deemed ineffective due to poor data quality.
Blood tests performed solely when a patient shows their condition to a new physician is insufficiently representative to develop successful treatment programs.
That arises because the health-care system ignores each patient’s body’s irregularities; for instance, their blood levels could be abnormal on the day the test was conducted for any number of reasons.
Featured Image: Otida Co-founders
Don’t miss important articles during the week. Subscribe to techbuild.africa weekly digest for updates.
