The edtech startup claimed that the round was oversubscribed and raised a total of $4.9 million to date. In late 2021, Maqsad had previously raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed round.
A seed round of $2.8 million has been raised by the edtech startup Maqsad, based in Karachi. It was announced today. In addition to returning investors Indus Valley Capital, Stellar Capital, Alter Global, Johann Jenson (SVP Product at GoStudent), and other strategic angels, the round was led by Speedinvest, one of Europe’s largest seed funds.
The edtech startup claimed that the round was oversubscribed and raised a total of $4.9 million to date. In late 2021, Maqsad had previously raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed round.
Maqsad, a company founded in 2021 by Rooshan Aziz and Taha Ahmed, aims to provide 100 million Pakistani students with access to education through an end-to-end mobile learning platform that provides instruction, assessment, and problem-solving for grades 9 through 12.
According to a statement from the startup, Maqsad’s mobile app has been downloaded more than a million times, has responded to 4 million student inquiries, and has consistently ranked as Pakistan’s top education app on the Google Play Store.
By providing students with a top-notch educational experience at a significantly reduced cost, the edtech platform hopes to upend the regional educational landscape.
To make sure that learning objectives are being met, the company has gathered feedback from over 20,000 students and teachers across Pakistan. For students without easy access to qualified instructors, a major issue is solved by edtech startup Maqsad’s question-solving technology (“DoubtSolve”) and interactive testing.
Pakistan has one of the highest student-teacher ratios in the world, with only one teacher for every 44 students, according to a statement from the Karachi-based startup.
The high student-teacher ratio issue is just one of many problems the nation’s education sector is grappling with that could be greatly improved by the edtech ecosystem.
The co-founder of the company, Rooshan, noted in a statement that the company had recently improved its assessment feature, which enables students to confidently assess their own performance.
Local startups like Edkasa and Middle Eastern edtech companies Noon and Abwaab, which recently expanded into Pakistan, are in direct competition with Maqsad.
Maqsad is now the best-funded local startup concentrating on Pakistani startups, thanks to the most recent investment. With these funds, it intends to broaden the platform’s subject offerings and advance the technology that powers it.
Maqsad’s long-term goal is to integrate itself into the educational ecosystem, and the company has already attracted interest for potential partnerships from both public and private sector institutions.
With an expected annual spend of $37 billion by 2032, Pakistan is an untapped market for edtech. A quarter of this is allocated for after-school academic support, which is frequently expensive and challenging to obtain.
Speedinvest, a new investor, is a seasoned edtech investor and already has GoStudent, an edtech unicorn with headquarters in Vienna, in its portfolio. Maqsad’s investment reflects its potential to influence millions of students’ lives and upend the educational ecosystem. “We are incredibly impressed by Rooshan and Taha as team builders,” said Philip Specht, Partner at Speedinvest, in a statement.
“We believe Maqsad is on track to be one of the most successful businesses in Pakistan.” Returning investor Indus Valley Capital increased its investment while highlighting the goals that Rooshan and Taha had for Pakistani education.
“Investing again in Maqsad is a no-brainer,” said Aatif Awan, founder of Indus Valley Capital, “as we have seen them bring together one of the best startup teams in Pakistan to build a category-leading product that has helped over a million students.”