CLASSERA CLOSES ONE OF THE LARGEST EDTECH SERIES A GLOBALLY, A $40M ROUND LED BY SANABIL
- Established in Silicon Valley with an Emerging Markets Focus, Classera is the largest Edtech company in MENA and most of sub-Saharan Africa, educating millions in more than 30 countries.
- Investment round led by Sanabil Investments, wholly-owned company by Public Investment Fund (PIF), and joined by Global Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, 500 Global, as well as investors from Silicon Valley, emerging market, and global family offices.
- The investment will advance Classera’s Learning Super Platform “LSP”, cement its position as a global leader in e-learning and accelerate its global expansion into new markets.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Classera, a global edutech e-learning company focused on emerging markets, has successfully raised $40 million in a Series A round, the largest in EdTech globally for a company with no prior funding. The round also mark’s the largest funding round ever in Edtech, in MENA and most of Africa.
The round was led by Sanabil Investments, wholly owned company by Public Investment Fund (“PIF”), accompanied by Global Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, 500 Global, Sukna Venture, and Seedra Ventures. The round additionally included a diverse set of investors from Silicon Valley, emerging markets, and global family offices.
Proceeds will be used by Classera to continue developing its Learning Super Platform (“LSP”) for the education and corporate training sectors, and cement its position as a global leader in e-learning and EdTech. In addition, the investment will be used to target more growth in MENA, the rest of Africa, and to accelerate its global expansion especially into Asia Pacific (APAC) and elsewhere, via direct sales, channel partners, and acquisitions. The proceeds will also help Classera – via its specialized platform for corporate e-training “LeadXera”- to expand faster into that huge sector – which is on of the primary target post this investment.
Classera is the largest Edtech company in MENA and most of sub-Saharan Africa, educating millions of learners in over 30 countries. The Company’s LSP is a fully integrated eco-system that includes a gamified learning management platform based on A.I and social learning, an augmented reality learning app “C-Reality”, a full ERP for educational institutions “C-Smarter”, an integrated e-payment gateway “C-Pay” for pocket money, tuitions payments and financing, and a specialized educational marketplace for Edtech and educational supplies products “Edumalls”. All under one umbrella to ease the process and boost learning engagement and thus the overall learning experience.
Classera’s thousands of customers include over 10 Ministries of Education, private K-12 schools, universities, and corporates for e-training. It has developed over 100 strategic partnerships with global and regional players including Microsoft, Zoom, Amazon, Intel, Udemy, and HP. Last year, the company launched a co-branded solution alongside HP, under the name “HP-ClassEasy by Classera” which is now offered in several countries globally.
Mohammad Almadani, CEO and co-founder of Classera, said:
“Today is a milestone in the Classera journey. I am honored to receive the backing of such an esteemed group of global investors, and immensely proud of our team whose passion has always been to revolutionise the learning experience. Together, we scaled Classera from limited resources to become a leading global EdTech platform. I am glad that we impacted and empowered the learning journey of millions, I hope our evolving story will serve as an inspiration to others, and we are optimistic that the best is yet to come.”
“The funding will help us take our “LSP” to the next level, making it smarter, inspiring and simpler, and for our clients and partners globally. Many learning institutions, especially after the pandemic, are convinced they need the next generation of e-learning solutions. This is where Classera comes in; as we aim to expand our offerings to more global markets and become the partner of choice for education and training institutions covering all of their needs in a turnkey solution and provide its members with a unique learning experience that enables them to reach their full potential.”
Commenting on the announcement, Sanabil Investments said:
“Classera has developed and successfully deployed a platform that reaches millions of users and has grown to become one of the leading emerging market e-learning solution providers globally. We are fully committed to enable Classera to further expand its reach to learners across all socio-economic backgrounds.”
Classera delivered one of the highest engagement metrics in the e-learning industry globally in the last academic year. In the journey, the engaging gamified platform enabled the company to secure close to 70% market share in several markets in the region, generating high engagement – leading to over 10 billion page-views. Along its path, Classera has also received several global awards in the Edtech industry including Bett, The Learning Award, GESS, Microsoft best global partner award and many more.
About Classera
Classera was founded in Silicon Valley by the entrepreneur Mohammad Almadani and his partner Mohammad Alashmawi – who both started their first company at the age of 18 – with a vision to revolutionize e-learning and enable learners in emerging markets to reach their full potential. They started by focusing on MENA and Africa to make the greatest impact. The cornerstone of Classera’s technology is its LSP which is powered by a gamified learning management platform built with cutting edge technologies. Its principle-based approach is cornerstoned around: inspiration through gamification, personalization through artificial intelligence, and collaboration through social learning – with the ultimate goal of reaching better engagement and therefore a better learning experience. Then to complete the ecosystem the ERP, the payment gateway and the marketplace comes in place all to make the LSP as a full turnkey solution.
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About Sanabil Investments
Sanabil is a financial investment company, wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), with USD 8 billion in paid-up share capital. We commit more than USD 2 billion in capital per annum into global private investments that include VC/growth. We are a dynamic, nimble, and highly experienced team of investment professionals. We provide partners with patient capital, the ability to invest across multiple funding rounds, and access to the region. At Sanabil, we invest in great ideas, great minds, and great companies.
For more information, please visit www.sanabil.com
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