Baims, a Kuwait-based EdTech platform that allows top academic instructors to teach and students to study anytime and anywhere, has raised $2.2 million in pre-Series A funding round led by Rasameel Investment House.
With the new financing, the startup plans to grow within its existing markets and the Middle East region, as well as create more dynamic content and expand the provision of more courses for university and high school students.
Founded in 2017 by Yousef Alhusaini and Bader AlRasheed, Baims, which stands for Big Aims, offers online tailored recorded courses for university students in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan. The courses that aim to digitise the offline tutoring experience allow students to learn at their own pace. All the courses come in the form of video lectures, notes, live sessions and quizzes that can be accessed on its web or mobile app.
Talking about the platform, Co-founder and CEO of Baims, Yousef Alhusaini, said,
“The higher education market in MENA is still undervalued and there is so much room to improve and grow. We are looking to offer the best academic courses during university & skills-based courses post-graduation. Our students spend more than 40+ minutes daily on Baims and we are looking to increase that by providing the best academic content from top instructors.”
The instructors that are part of Baims network include ‘top-tier’ professors, engineers, and tutors. It uses a revenue-share model for its instructors who provide the content tailored to each subject’s curriculum.
The startup claims to have created more than 2,900 recorded courses and 55,000+ lectures covering more than 20 universities. Baims sales grew x7 from its previous investment round back in mid-2020.
Dakhil Al-Dakhil, SEO of Rasameel Investment House, added:
“We are always on the lookout for local opportunities that not only provide a transformative business plan but also carry with it a fascinating story and energetic entrepreneurs who are capable of delivering a successful ending to that story. We found in Baims those fundamental elements where the business is built over a need derived from the founders’ own experience.”
Investing more in technology is one of the company’s biggest competencies, as it launched a new version of the application in 2021 with more than 11 new features to facilitate the user experience and provide the latest technology to the platform’s students and teachers.
In May 2020, Baims had raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by AlWazzan Education, a service provider of K-12 American, British and Arabic education in Kuwait, with the participation from VC firm Seed Partners and several angel investors.
