Saudi-based Teacher Training Platform Aanaab announced that has closed its first investment round with $1.5 million (5.6 million Saudi riyal). The round was led by Nour Nouf Knowledge Company and Wamda, along with a group of angel investors in the education sector.
This investment comes as part of an effort to support the expansion of Aanaab operations to reach new segments and markets in the online teacher training sector during its second year.
The platform has achieved significant growth in its first year and managed to gain over 37 thousand enrollments by teachers around the Arab world. The completion rate of courses on Aanab platform has reached 28%, which is twice the average global rate for other open education platforms and achieved a rate of 95% in trainee satisfaction. This confirms the need for a specialized platform that provides high-quality professional development courses in education, according to Dr. Munira Jamjoom the CEO of the platform.
At the end of this investment round, Princess Sama bint Faisal Al Saud, Executive Partner of Noor Nouf Knowledge Company, expressed her happiness with this partnership. She looked forward to an rewarding knowledge journey with the team carrying out such ambitious work directed at the development of teachers and educators. She added that Noor Nouf Knowledge’s investment comes within its keenness to support and develop outstanding projects in the field of knowledge creation, all in an effort to contribute towards the Kingdom’s transition to a knowledge-based economy.
Another investor, Fadi Ghandour, President of Wamdah Seed, praised the wide experience of the founders of the company for building an innovative platform that focuses on teachers’ qualification, which is at the core of improving knowledge acquisition in schools. He confirmed confidence in the impact of the company’s leaders on its future growth, which led Wamdah to its first investment in the educational technology sector.
Naila AlKhalawi, Co-founder and COO at Aanaab has revealed the intention of the platform, along with its partners, to develop initiatives similar to global models such as the Singaporean model, which encourages teachers to get 100 hours of professional development annually. This keeps them up to date with the latest developments in their field and improves their classroom practices through professional learning communities. Such initiatives come as part of the company’s aspiration to be a platform that supports lifelong learning for Arab education professionals.
Fouad Al-Farhan, founder and partner in Rawaq Al-Maarifa (Rwaq), the technical partner in Aanaab platform, pointed out the importance of this type of investment in the education technology sector which has achieved remarkable growth in the past two years. This is in line with the global trend to create a major shift in the traditional education sector and professional development for teachers.
Aanaab platform offers online courses to enhance teachers’ and educators’ competencies through open learning. Teachers can enroll for free in various courses and opt to purchase a certificate of completion afterward. The platform also provides schools with premium solutions for teachers professionals within the school.
Aanab has held multiple partnerships with leading education institutions that offer professional development programs, such as a partnership with Cambridge, which depends on its curriculum on practice and reflection on the educational process, and more than 450 teachers have been awarded Cambridge International Certificates.
The company has also recently launched “Technical Teacher Course” in partnership with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, which trained more than 1000 teachers on teaching skills and enable them to integrate technology in education.
As shared in their press release.