British tutoring platform Scoodle, which has growing Middle Eastern presence, has raised $2 million from Google for Startups, IFG and DA One Investment in its seed round.
Launched in 2018, Scoodle is an online learning platform allowing students to connect with tutors globally. Made for tutors, by tutors, it is the first global platform to offer zero percent commission on bookings made.
The start-up, which wants to help tutors become influencers, also received $760,000 in pre-seed funding in January 2020 from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, alongside Tiny VC, IFG Ventures and a number of unnamed angels.
Rachael Palmer, Head of VC and Startup Partnerships in EMEA at Google said: “Increasing access to quality education is one of the big opportunities that the tech sector provides, and we are really impressed with the speed of growth and the quality of execution that Scoodle has delivered to date.”
According to Scoodle’s founder and CEO, Ismail Jeilani, the global coronavirus pandemic doubled the site’s metrics overnight. Activity on the online education platform site grew from 15,000 users in March to 30,000 users in April 2020.
“Around 7,000 students across the UAE and Saudi Arabia have used Scoodle’s educators and learning materials over 50,000 times in the region,” he said.
The platform, which launched in the UAE in 2019, is targeting 1 million Gulf learners in 2021.
Scoodle targets global students seeking tutorage across a broad spectrum of subjects, from Arabic to music and maths.
“With this funding, we’ll be opening up the content platform including learning resources and videos to students in the Middle East and beyond,” Jeilani said. “We’re building a world where an Arabic expert living in Egypt can create classes or share answers with students from around the world.”
Scoodle’s founder and CEO, Ismail Jeilani
In a previous interview with Arabian Business, the Scoodle CEO said he expects an uptick in UAE and Saudi Arabia-based educators in the coming year, with at least 20 percent of the region’s 1 million learners benefitting directly from regional instructors.
“By the end of 2021, we expect to have helped between eight to 12 million students globally,” he said.
Given the potential for online education growth in the Middle East, Jeilani plans to open an overseas office in Dubai in 2021.
The Middle East has emerged as a fast growing market for edtech companies, with global players citing a 500 percent increase in subscribers from the region in 2020, compared to 2019, according to a report from RedSeer Consulting.
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