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Taha Ahmed and Rooshan Aziz left their jobs in technique consulting and funding banking in London earlier this yr with a view to discovered a mobile-only schooling platform startup, Maqsad, in Pakistan, with a aim “to make schooling extra accessible to 100 million Pakistani college students.”
Having grown up in Karachi, childhood pals Ahmed and Aziz are conscious of the challenges concerning the Pakistani schooling system, which is notably worse for these not dwelling in giant city areas (the nation’s student-teacher ratio is 44:1). Pakistani youngsters are much less more likely to go to highschool for every kilometer of distance between faculty and their dwelling — with women being 4 instances affected, Maqsad co-founder Aziz mentioned.
Maqsad introduced in the present day its $2.1 million pre-seed spherical to reinforce its content material platform progress and spend money on R&D.
The pre-seed spherical, which was accomplished in simply three weeks through digital conferences, was led by Indus Valley Capital, with participation from Alter International, Fatima Gobi Ventures and several other angel buyers from Pakistan, the Center East and Europe.
Maqsad will use the proceeds for growing in-house content material, resembling manufacturing studio, lecturers and animators, in addition to bolstering R&D and engineering, Aziz instructed TechCrunch. The corporate will give attention to the Okay-12 schooling in Pakistan, together with eleventh and twelfth grade math, with plans to broaden into different STEM topics for the following one-two years, Aziz mentioned.
Maqsad’s platform, which supplies a one-stop store for after-school tutorial content material in a mixture of English and Urdu, will likely be supplemented by quizzes and different gamified options that may come collectively to supply a customized schooling to people. Its platform options embrace adaptive testing that alter a query’s stage of issue relying on customers’ responses, Aziz defined.
The phrase “maqsad” means goal in Urdu.
“We imagine everybody has a goal. Maqsad’s mission is to allow Pakistani college students to appreciate this goal; whether or not you’re a scholar from an city centre, resembling Lahore, or from a distant village in Sindh: Maqsad believes in equal alternative for all,” Aziz mentioned.
“We’re constructing a mobile-first platform, on condition that 95% of broadband customers in Pakistan are through cell. Most different platforms will not be cell optimized,” Aziz added.
“It’s about extra than simply getting college students to move their exams. We wish to begin a revolution in the way in which Pakistani college students study, transferring past rote memorization to a spot of actual comprehension,” mentioned co-founder Taha Ahmed, who was a former technique advisor at LEK.
The corporate ran small pilots in April and Might and began full-scale operations on 26 July, Aziz mentioned, including that Maqsad will launch its cell app, at present beneath improvement, within the coming months in This fall 2021 and has a waitlist for early entry.
“Struggles of scholars through the early days of the pandemic motivated us to run a pilot. With promising preliminary traction and person suggestions, the dimensions of the chance to digitize the schooling sector grew to become very clear,” Aziz mentioned.
The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the schooling business, heating up the worldwide edtech startups that made on-line schooling extra accessible for a wider inhabitants, for instance in international locations like India and Indonesia, Aziz talked about.
The schooling market measurement in Pakistan is estimated at $12 billion and is projected to extend to $30 billion by 2030, in keeping with Aziz.
It plans to construct the corporate as a hybrid heart providing on-line and offline programs like Byju’s and Aakash, and broaden courses for adults resembling MasterClass, the U.S.-based on-line courses for adults, as its long-term plans, Aziz mentioned.
“Maqsad founders’ deep understanding of the issue, distinctive method to fixing it and fervour for impression persuaded us rapidly,” the founder and managing companion of Indus Valley Capital, Aatif Awan, mentioned.
“Pakistan’s edtech alternative is likely one of the largest on the planet and we’re excited to again Maqsad in delivering tech-powered schooling that ranges entry, high quality and throughout Pakistan’s youth and creates lasting social change,” Ali Mukhtar, common companion of Fatima Gobi Ventures mentioned.
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