There are greater than 400 million Arabic audio system globally and that quantity isn’t slowing down anytime quickly. Arabic, to most individuals, is a troublesome language even to those that communicate it. According to Duolingo, somebody fluent in Egyptian Arabic won’t absolutely perceive Yemeni Arabic audio system due to the huge distinction in dialect.
While people can simply navigate dialects, it may be comparatively onerous for them to seek out tailor-made Arabic content material important for on a regular basis life.
Dr Ihab Fikry and Ibrahim Kamel based Almentor.internet in 2016 as a web based video studying platform to compensate for this lack of on-line studying content material for Arabic audio system. In collaboration with a whole bunch of leaders, educators, and consultants, the platform gives programs and talks in varied fields like well being, humanities, expertise, entrepreneurship, enterprise administration, way of life, drama, sports activities, company communication, and digital media.
In 2016, Almentor closed a $3.5 million seed spherical and two years in the past raised $4.5 million Series A led by Egypt’s Sawari Ventures. With this Series B funding, the Dubai-based edtech firm has raised $14.5 million in complete. San Francisco and Paris-based VC agency Partech led the financing spherical with participation from Sawari Ventures, fellow Series A investor Egypt Ventures, and Sango Capital.
Almentor offers Arab learners with the required expertise crucially wanted to advance their skilled careers and private lives. The platform claims to have the most important steady studying library within the area and one of many largest worldwide. With workplaces in Dubai, Cairo, and Saudi Arabia, its video content material is developed in-house and made in Arabic and English.
“The imaginative and prescient and purpose behind beginning Almentor is we perceive that in our area of greater than 100 million folks, of which 90% can’t correctly study with some other language aside from Arabic,” Fikry mentioned to TechCrunch. “So we needed to have a cutting-edge cutting-edge platform that can change folks’s ideology and assist them be goal, and focus primarily based on matters that may be taught as prodigious studying.”
For first-time merchandise like Almentor, it may be onerous to get each traders and prospects on board. According to CEO Fikry, the primary problem was to persuade the funding neighborhood within the MENA area that Almentor was creating a brand new trade in video e-learning that “had plenty of potential to energy instruments within the area.”
Almentor’s enterprise is an intersection of training, media, and expertise. Its choices are dissected into three: the flagship B2C product, a white-label B2B mannequin for blue-chip corporations, and the final, which Fikry calls the ‘special project’ for governmental our bodies.
For its B2C product, Almentor sells programs to customers for $20-$30 of which they get to maintain for a lifetime. Fikry says that in June, the corporate is planning to introduce a subscription-based mannequin the place customers can have limitless entry to all of its 12,000 video content material for a price to its greater than 1 million registered customers.
The B2B mannequin is the place Almentor opens its library to corporations to customise their content material for workers. These movies are primarily tutorials or coaching wanted to thrive at work, and since 2016, Almentor has executed 78 offers with associate corporations.
The particular undertaking’s mannequin highlights Almentor’s work with the federal government. One time, the corporate had a partnership with the Egyptian authorities to upskill the nation’s film trade. It has accomplished 11 extra comparable particular initiatives since launching 5 years in the past.
Across all three fashions, Fikry says Almentor has efficiently delivered greater than 2 million studying experiences. With this funding, the firm needs to enhance content material manufacturing and high quality and educate folks within the MENA area on why they want the product.
“We at the moment are main the continual video studying trade within the Arab area, and now we have a duty that goes past our ambitions for Almentor. Source hyperlink
