Jordanian Edtech Startup IQRA’A Secures its First Round of Investment

When it comes to ‘digitisation’, it’s rarely as simple as ‘putting something online’. No matter what the service or product, it comes with its own challenges and hurdles, something that Jordanian startup, IQRA’A, has been attempting to crack in the education sector  - efforts that have gained the edtech startup - which launched in July, 2020 - its first round of investment.

The amount raised and source of the pre-seed funding has not been disclosed, though the investment will almost certainly be channelled into further developing the platform’s innovative education tools, which aim to address the issues presented by online learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the startup, issues include the inability of students, teachers and schools to communicate properly without interruption; a decrease in students’ focus on materials, as well as teachers’ abilities to get their information across; lack of high quality of educational content being delivered to students; and the difficulty in acquiring data at an affordable price for academic entities.

"As a student, I always found it difficult to get myself to study as I found it very boring. Many of my colleagues felt the same way. The concept of IQRA’A is changing that ideology, by providing students with the data they need in an enjoyable form," says Hasan Abusheikh, Co-founder.

“With the latest developments worldwide, students were hassled into the world of online education, with neither the privilege of time to prepare for it, nor suitable, up-to-date technology to support them throughout it,” Co-founder and CEO of IQRA’A, Mohammad Abusheikh, explains “IQRA’A wants to bridge that gap, and build its content to ease that process for pupils.”

One of the more ambitious goals for the startup is to digitise Jordan’s national curriculum and apply IQRA’A’s methods to it - methods that the startup believe are more effective than traditional education methods.

“Our main focus at IQRA’A is helping students reach their full potential. We want to provide them with the information they need efficiently in a way that attracts them, rather than bores them. We want to change the ideology of school being a burden, to school being amusing.”