The Saudi Arabian education technology (edtech) startup Aanaab, which aims to empower teachers, has received funding from Rethink Education, an impact venture capital firm specializing in education.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, like many other parts of the world, grapples with the continuous challenge of educating and retraining educators and school administrators. Teachers are frequently ignored in favor of students, curriculum, or resources in the majority of education solutions in the area. When no other competitors were present, Aanaab recognized a rare opportunity to develop a complete teacher professional development solution to address this challenge—a $4 billion addressable market overall.
The digital training platform was established in 2019 and provides K–12 educators with a variety of courses, licenses, and qualifications, mostly in Arabic, to help them advance their careers.
“Upskilling teachers is something we’re passionate about because it changes the lives of students around the world,” says Mounira Jamjoom, Aanaab CEO and co-founder. “We can all remember a teacher who had a positive impact on our learning. Even in classrooms that have limited access to resources, a good teacher can still facilitate effective and impactful learning.”
Over 200,000 teachers and roughly 250 schools are currently registered on Aanaab’s platform, which is available in ten MENA countries. The asynchronous and synchronous courses offered by the organization are accredited and feature a data-driven methodology that monitors educators’ professional growth via a dashboard.
Six domains are covered by Aanaab’s content framework, which range from student support and wellbeing to technology in the classroom to teachers’ subject knowledge, assessment, and pedagogical skills. Courses for school administrators and courses to prepare for Saudi Arabia’s teacher licensing exams are also offered on the platform. To give its users access to the newest in professional development courses, Aanaab creates its own content and collaborates with numerous foreign organizations.
One recent initiative from the company is a set of courses designed to assist educators in teaching coding and expanding their knowledge of artificial intelligence techniques and how best to incorporate them into the classroom.
“Our investment in Aanaab illustrates how impact can be leveraged at scale globally,” says Andre Bennin, Managing Partner of Rethink Education.
One of the few in the larger MENA area and the first edtech company based in Saudi Arabia to receive funding from an international edtech venture capital fund is Aanaab.
“At Rethink Education, we believe that in order to unlock students’ full potential, we must first invest in teachers,” says Bennin. “When we saw the work Aanaab was doing to help solve what is probably the most pressing education issue in the region, it was very exciting for us.”
For the past year, Rethink Education has been closely monitoring innovation and entrepreneurship in the MENA region, and going forward, the organization will keep an eye out for new opportunities.
