• Saudi Arabia-based edtech Aanaab has raised an investment from US-based edtech VC Rethink Education. The value remains undisclosed.
• Founded in 2019 by Mounira Jamjoom, the digital training platform offers K–12 teachers and educators a range of courses, licensing, and qualifications, predominantly in Arabic, to advance their professional development. 
• Aanaab, a Wamda portfolio company, currently has over 200,000 teachers and about 250 schools enrolled on its platform, spanning across 10 countries in the MENA region.

Press release:

Rethink Education, a New York-based impact venture capital firm focused on education, announced its investment in Aanaab, a Saudi Arabia-based education technology (edtech) company, on a mission to empower teachers. 

Like many areas of the world, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region faces the ongoing challenge of training and continually upskilling teachers and school leaders. Most of the education solutions in the region focus on students, curriculum, or resources and often overlook teachers. Aanaab saw the unique opportunity to build a comprehensive teacher professional development solution to address this challenge in the absence of other competitors—a total addressable market of $4 billion. 

Founded in 2019, the digital training platform offers K-12 teachers and educators a range of courses, licensing, and qualifications, predominantly in Arabic, to advance their professional development. 

“Upskilling teachers is something we’re passionate about because it changes the lives of students around the world,” says Mounira Jamjoom, Aanaab CEO and co-founder. “We can all remember a teacher who had a positive impact on our learning. Even in classrooms that have limited access to resources, a good teacher can still facilitate effective and impactful learning.” 

Aanaab currently has over 200,000 teachers and about 250 schools enrolled on its platform, spanning across 10 countries in the MENA region. Its courses, both asynchronous and synchronous, are accredited and boast a data-driven approach that tracks teachers’ professional development through a dashboard. 

Aanaab’s content framework covers six domains ranging from teachers’ subject knowledge, assessment, and pedagogical skills to student support and wellbeing to technology in education. The platform also provides courses for school leaders and preparation courses for Saudi Arabia’s teacher licensing exams. Aanaab develops its own content as well as partners with various international entities to provide the latest in educational professional development courses to its users. For example, the company recently launched courses that support teachers in learning how to teach coding and develop their understanding of AI techniques and how to effectively apply them in the education process. 

“Our investment in Aanaab illustrates how impact can be leveraged at scale globally,” says Andre Bennin, Managing Partner of Rethink Education. 

Aanaab is the first Saudi Arabia-based edtech company to get funding from an international edtech venture capital fund and one of the few in the broader MENA region. 

“At Rethink Education, we believe that in order to unlock students’ full potential, we must first invest in teachers,” says Bennin. “When we saw the work Aanaab was doing to help solve what is probably the most pressing education issue in the region, it was very exciting for us.” 

Rethink Education has been diligently observing entrepreneurship and innovation in the MENA region over the past year and will continue to explore opportunities going forward.