Moroccan EdTech startup Smartprof has closed its pre-seed funding round of $110,000 from Plug and Play, UM6P Ventures, and a couple of angel investors.
The latest funding includes $50,000 the company raised earlier in July this year.
Founded in 2021 by Hamza Faiz, Mustapha Faiz, and Ali Faouzi, Smartprof is an on-demand private tutoring platform that provides 1-on-1 or group live interactive sessions to school-aged students. It aims to become a one-stop EdTech platform for private tutoring in North and West Africa, a market that is worth billions of dollars, according to the startup.
Speaking about the platform, Mustapha Faiz, Co-founder & CEO of Smartprof, said,
We launched Smartprof after noticing that the private educational system was failing in Morocco. We were convinced that every student needs some kind of private assistance in order to overcome the challenges faced at schools. The private tutoring market is very fragmented; finding a tutor is a nightmare. Additionally, there’s no visibility on pricing, so there was a real need for a tech product that creates a great tutoring experience.
“One of the major challenges of our company is the complex and poor payment infrastructure in Morocco. But the market opportunity for us remains huge, that’s why we try to adapt as much as possible to a very rigid banking system,” he added.
Private tutoring has experienced significant growth due to the increasing competition for space in public education systems. The rise in demand has stirred up startups across the region to begin to digitize the private tutoring experience and plug the gap in attainment for families and students relying on this type of education.
With the new funding, Smartprof plans to extend its footprint in Morocco and West Africa, and hire further developers to improve the product’s quality.
Earlier in July, Smartprof secured $50,000 in funding after graduating from the third cohort of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) Startgate and Plug and Play Morocco startup competition. The startup is backed by different institutions such as l’École Centrale Casablanca and UM6P startup campus, Startgate.
