As another quarter ends, Shorooq Partners continues its efforts to identify and support unique businesses that lead the innovational transformation in the Middle East and beyond. Through its investment in Teacherly, Shorooq has taken its first steps into the world of EdTech and is excited to back a business that leverages latest technology to support the hard working and truly deserving population of teachers.
In recent years, Ed Tech has emerged as a prominent market in the Middle East. While most of the businesses in the space have put students at the focal point of their service, Teacherly has approached revolutionizing the space from a fresh angle. Teacherly is a collaborative lesson planning and peer-to-peer coaching platform tailored to the needs of teachers. By allowing teachers to plan lessons, communicate and collaborate digitally, Teacherly strives to reinvent synergy in the education workspace. True to its vision of “Turning Teachers, into Teams”, the platform helps teachers save 67% of their time while planning lessons and managing communications.
“Education is still one of the more conventional spaces that is underserved by the latest technology, and we are delighted to enter the space through a truly disruptive venture” said Shane Shin, Founding Partner at Shorooq Partners “We are excited to join the journey of Teacherly at such an early stage and are committed to building it together – supporting it to grow its strong presence in the Middle East and further penetrate the European market. We believe that Teacherly solves a unique problem that few businesses have identified, let alone solve effectively, and is poised for exponential growth” he added.
Teacherly was founded in 2016 in UK by Atif Mahmood, an educator himself who had experienced and suffered due to the lack of collaboration in workplace firsthand. Leveraging its steady foundation in UK, Teacherly is now rapidly expanding into the Middle East with UAE at its forefront – a market that already contributes to 30% of their customers.Owing to its unique value proposition that teachers around the world recognize instantly, Teacherly is set to grow +4x this year and serves +70,000 Monthly Active Users already. Despite its low marketing effort, these impressive growth metrics are a testimony to the positive reception and validation of the service by the teaching community.
“Despite the recent growth in EdTech, the teaching population in the Middle East is still heavily overlooked and underserved by the latest technology. We are confident that with Shorooq’s expertise and support we can create value and solve important problems for the education space here” said Atif, Teacherly Founder.
Shorooq has identified a unique opportunity to invest in while contributing to lighten the load for all the hardworking teachers. “We are both humbled and excited to partner with Teacherly. I have known Atif for a long time and he is one of the most sincere, dedicated and knowledgeable Founders. With him spearheading the business and our strategic support, Teacherly is positioned in a fantastic spot to become a leading player in the EdTech space” said Kunal Savjani, Partner at Shorooq.