The startup pledges to educate 1M vulnerable students by 2025
Source: Abwaab
Amman, Jordan, May 30, 2022 – Abwaab, a Jordan-based startup that was founded right before the pandemic, launched in 2019 with a vision to “Unleash the human potential of the region”. Today, it pledges to educate 1M vulnerable students with limited or no access to education by 2025.
Abwaab, is an online learning platform that allows school students to learn, solve, interact, play and ask questions by offering concept-based video lessons, visualized learning journeys, continuous assessment, instant tutoring support, and performance-tracking features. The startup operates across Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan and plans to expand across the greater MENAP region.
The MENAP region has over 37 million school-aged children with no access to formal education. Sources: UNICEF; UNICEF; UNICEF. These are tens of millions of children who are not set up for a promising future. Some of the reasons for their exclusion include distance from the nearest school and low quality of education – barriers that can be addressed with the power of technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a pre-existing learning crisis in the MENAP region, particularly for the most vulnerable children such as the poor, refugees and children with disabilities. Today, and as made evident throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, access to quality education for all is made possible through disruptive education technology.
“Our mission is to make high quality education affordable and accessible. While tech brings down the cost by 90%, there will still be a segment in the population with barriers such as poor tech infrastructure,” says Hamdi Tabbaa, cofounder & CEO of Abwaab.
“Through a pilot collaboration with Los Angeles based Children of War Foundation, we managed to onboard over 100 children who have skipped schools for up to 5 years. With Abwaab’s support, these students managed to get back on track, demonstrating 35% improvement in academic performance.”
To lead this new initiative dubbed “EquAL: Equal Access to Learning”, Abwaab hired ex-UNICEF veteran Maria Zabaneh after working on education programs addressing exclusion from education, research to quantify and understand the issue of out-of-school children, and supporting fundraising efforts for vulnerable children in Jordan.
Through strategic partnerships with development partners, donors and the private sector, Abwaab will reach vulnerable children with access to its online platform, and facilitate access by providing tablets and data packages.
Young refugee girls learning through Abwaab’s online platform
Source: Abwaab
Backed by strong global investors, including Silicon Valley’s GSV Ventures, New York’s 4DX Ventures, Dubai’s BECO Capital, and Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Capital, the startup has raised USD 27.5M of funding over 3 rounds. It is being run by a world class team that includes Uber and Careem veterans, Harvard and Stanford graduates, the startup is poised to revolutionize education over the coming years.
A mission at this scale is no new challenge for Abwaab. The startup pulled off a collaboration with Jordan’s Ministry of Education in 2020, days before the government announced a nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19. The result was launching a platform named “Darsak”, on which Abwaab managed to support learning continuity for 1.5M students in the span of 3 months, who would have otherwise been excluded from learning.
About Abwaab Technologies Inc.
Founded in 2019, Abwaab is an online learning platform that allows school students to learn at their own pace, test themselves and get ahead with our expert tutors anytime and anywhere.
By offering concept-based video lessons, visualized learning journeys, continuous assessment, and performance-tracking features, we are changing the way students learn outside the classroom.
Our platform can be accessed via desktop and mobile web or through our mobile app which is currently available on the Google Play Store. You can check us out at https://abwaab.me, Crunchbase, MAGNiTT, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & LinkedIn.
Abwaab EquAL Initiative Contact
Maria Zabaneh
Press Contact
Shirin Al-Hussein