Jordan-based education technology (edtech) startup Abwaab has closed a $2.4 million pre-seed funding round, led by Adam Tech Ventures and joined by Endure Capital, Equitrust, the Innovative Startups SME Fund and several angel investors.

Abwaab was founded by in September 2019 by Hamdi Tabbaa, who previously worked as GCC and Levant general manager at Uber and Hussein Alsarabi, former director of technology and product development at Mawdoo3.com. The company provides out-of-school learning experiences for Arabic-speaking students by providing concept-based video lessons taught by experienced teachers. The technology allows students to learn at their own pace, assess and track their progress. Abwaab offers a freemium subscription model and has more than 1000 videos to date.

The funding will be used to develop its online learning platform and grow its team.

“Not only are we planning on tailoring the learning experience on the country level, but also on the individual level. We aim to harness the power of AI [artificial intelligence] to provide each and every student a unique and personalised learning journey,” said Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and chief technology officer at Abwaab. “I believe that AI will be an instrumental driver of change in edtech and we want to be at the forefront of this.”

The edtech sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Middle East and is expected to receive a boost amid the closing of schools and universities with the outbreak of the Coronavirus. While Arabic is the fourth most-spoken language globally, just 3 per cent of content online is in Arabic, a “huge discrepancy” that needs to be addressed according to Abwaab.