iSchool raises $4.5 million in a funding round led by VentureWave Capital, an Irish VC, followed by OneStop Capital UK, Webit Investment Network, and Oraseya Capital, the Venture Capital arm of the Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority.
Through its platform, iSchool’s platform offers live gamified classes led by top coding instructors, catering to students aged 6 to 18. The curriculum spans AI, VR, app development, game development, and web development, fostering foundational concepts from early childhood. This unique approach, coupled with international accreditation, has propelled iSchool’s rapid growth.
iSchool’s journey began in 2018 as a solution for the 100 million students that don’t have access to technology education curricula or programmes in the MENA region. Having experienced these struggles and challenges in their tech education journey, the iSchool founders set out to improve students’ access to key staples, and through operational excellence, the company has achieved more than 72% customer retention month over month.
Today, iSchool has more than 26,000 live learners, delivered over 1,000,000 training hours, and more than 10,000,000 lines of code have been written by its students, working with 35 schools, providing technical training, and CS labs, all of which led to managing national-level initiatives in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
With these significant milestones, iSchool Holdings establishes its presence in Ireland, propelling the company to a global scale, and plans to grow a new team in Dublin. The newly raised capital will drive iSchool’s swift expansion into six additional countries in the MENA region, facilitate technological scaling for the ‘Online Coding Platform,’ and prepare for the extension of its gamified online classroom app service throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
Commenting on iSchool’s growth ambitions, Muhammad Gawish, co-founder and CEO of iSchool, says,We started out by teaching tech for K12 students, and today we are giving the world access to thousands of top-notch coding instructors from their comfort at home with a click of a button. Our mission is to empower today’s generations to become tomorrow’s technology leaders, beginning in the Middle East and Africa and spreading to the rest of the world. Using dynamic technology and a deep understanding of the end-to-end live class process, we are growing a simple idea into a product that we believe can improve the lives of millions of people.”
“We are delighted to be joined by a number of vastly experienced and strategic investors, whose expertise will not only play a vital role ahead of our future expansion but also in our current activities, managing national-level initiatives in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.”
Reflecting on the growth and potential of iSchool, Kieran McLoughlin, Managing Partner of VentureWave Capital, said: “VentureWave Capital is thrilled to lead this funding round for iSchool and to back such an innovative company that is making a significant impact on education in the Middle East and Africa. This investment aligns perfectly with our mission to achieve social progress by supporting transformative entrepreneurs. We are delighted to play our part in iSchool’s ambitious plans to bring their unique educational model to new markets and empower the next generation of technology leaders.”