UAE-based venture capital (VC) investor Spartech Ventures, has participated in UK-based educational technology (edtech) platform Bibliu’s $12 million series A investment round.

Founded in 2020, BibliU is an online platform that provides students with access to their textbooks and libraries, offering a variety of flexible purchasing options to different educational institutions of all sizes.

The edtech startup had previously raised $10 million as part of its series A funding round last April, led by Impact Investments, with participation from Guinness Asset Management and Oxford Sciences Innovation.

“What attracted us to BibliU is how they are enhancing the way students consume content at universities. Bibliu has an opportunity to break the content barrier in the region by offering regional institutions with access to content similar to that offered to global prestigious institutions/customers such as University of Oxford, London Business School among others,” said Sachhyam Regmi, managing director at Spartech Ventures.

The partnership between BibliU and Spartech is aimed at supporting the edtech company’s growth in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region and globally.

“Bibliu is an exciting edtech platform to introduce to the region. We are certainly excited to have joined the Bibliu family and look forward to supporting their growth story in the Mena region and beyond,” said Yagub Alserkal, managing director of Spartech Ventures.

Dave Sherwood, CEO and cofounder of BibliU, added: "It is an exciting time for edtech, and BibliU in particular. In the past year, we’ve seen usage quadruple, with approximately 300,000 students provided with access to the platform, and expect that number to double again over the coming year. "Our partnership with Spartech Ventures has really highlighted that the need for education technology, both during the current crisis and in the following years, is a global one. Spartech is very much attuned to this need, and we are incredibly happy to leverage their expertise to create a platform that works for institutions and students everywhere."

In the UK, BibliU works with the majority of universities, including running the largest free eTextbook programme in the UK and EU with Coventry University, while in the US, they run the largest digital content programmes, with their circa 180,000 students accessing its core reading resources online through its platform, all included within the cost of their tuition.