Kuwaiti edtech Baims has raised seed funding in a round led by AlWazzan Education, a Kuwaiti company that operates and invests in schools in Kuwait, Saudi, Egypt & Lebanon, and joined by a local investment firm Seeds Partners, the startup announced in a statement to MENAbytes without disclosing the financial details of the deal.
Founded in 2017 by Yousef Alhusaini and Bader AlRasheed, Baims which stands for Big Aims, offers online recorded courses for high school and university students, and even toddlers, mainly in Kuwait and Saudi. The courses that aim to digitize the offline tutoring experience allow students to learn at their own pace.
Yousef and Bader started Baims when they were engineering students at Kuwait University and the initial focus of the platform was on engineer courses based on university curriculum but later expanded their offering to include courses for different other subjects and levels.
The startup claims to have over 1,000 recorded courses and 30,000 lectures (in English & Arabic on its platform and says that it has reached over 450,000 enrollments to date. Some of the courses available on the platform are free to access while the others are priced at different price points, starting from $13 (KWD 4) per course.
Baims has also made all of its high school courses free to help students learn at home as schools remain closed due to Covid-19.
All the courses come in form of video lectures, notes, and quizzes that can be accessed on Baims web or mobile apps.
The instructors that are part of Baims network include ‘top-tier’ professors, engineers, and tutors. The startup uses a revenue-share model for its instructors who provide the content tailored to each subject’s curriculum. We could not confirm but apparently Baims helps with the production of video lectures.
Yousef Alhusaini, co-founder and CEO of Baims, commenting on the occasion, said, “Baims has been profitable since day one and we believe that everyone should make money when they work with Baims so the instructors invest their time and teach students, and create a new source of income, and they can do that anytime from anywhere.”
Bader AlRasheed, co-founder and CTO of Baims, said, “Baims stands for Big Aims and our aim is to build a strong youth community for a better educational ecosystem in the GCC & MENA region and improve educational content.”
Mohammad Al Wazzan, representing the AlWazzan Education, said, “Education is ever-changing, and Baims is a prime example of truly accessible, and inclusive education in a modern world. We at AlWazzan Education are incredibly happy to be a part of the Baims family.”
The startup plans to use the investment to continue growing within GCC and MENA, and for further improving its offerings.