Ahead of the Arabian derby, meet Nafham the biggest edtech platform in MENA

Egypt takes on Saudi Arabia later on this afternoon (4pm Central African Time) in a dead rubber that is being dubbed as the Arabian derby.

The derby is expected to be fraught with tension as the two teams both desperately want to make an impression before leaving the tournament, and because of public quarrel. The Pharaohs will want to win this one for pride’s sake. The last time the two teams faced off at major tournament was at the 1999 Confederations Cup and the Saudis won that match.

Nafham is one of the Middle East and North Africa’s biggest edtech platfroms

If the Egyptian’s are to win this one they might need to consult with CEO Mosti Farahat, Ahmed Alfi, and Muhammad Habib.

In 2012 the trio founded the award winning edtech startup Nafham to take on private-tutoring with free online crowd-sourced educational content.

Nafham’s platform provides users with free access to educational videos that explain school curricula (pre-school to 12th grade) in Egypt, Kuwait, Syria, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia.

Each month, over half a million students access the startup’s content. With over 60-million video views since launch, Nafham could very well be one of the biggest edtech platforms in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

The startup won at the 2015 World Innovation Summit for Education and is also a recipient of the Mercy Corps’ Egypt Social Impact Business Award. In 2013 Nafham placed third at the ArabNet Beirut Startup Demo. One of Nafham’s co-founders, El Afli, also made it on Quartz 2017 list of African Innovators.

We hope the Pharaohs can emulate Nafham’s success and grab a win for the continent.

This piece, harbouring the spirit of the FIFA World Cup, is part of a 12-part series in which Ventureburn aims to draw attention to and celebrate African innovation and African startups.

African results so far:

Egypt 0-1 Uruguay (Group A, 15 June)
Morocco 0-1 Iran (Group B, 15 June)
Nigeria 0-2 Croatia (Group C, 16 June)
Tunisia 1-2 England (Group G, 18 June)
Senegal 2-1 Poland (Group H, 19 June)
Egypt 1-3 Russia (Group A, 19 June)
Morocco 0-1 Portugal (Group B, 20 June)
Nigeria 2-0 Iceland (Group D, 22 June)
Tunisia 2-5 Belgium (Group G, 23 June)
Senegal 2-2 Japan (Group H, 24 June)

Read more: Nigeria’s young squad could learn a thing or two from agritech startup Farmcrowdy
Read more: Morocco will need to be innovative like startup Hooplacar to shock Portugal
Read more: Can Egypt help Africa save face? This savings platform could show them how
Read more: Will the Teranga Lions roar and dominate like Senegalese startup CoinAfrique?
Read more: Can Tunisia haul a win? Meet the logistics marketplace that could inspire them
Read more: As the Atlas Lions march into battle, learn how MedTrucks is disrupting healthcare
Read more: Ahead of the Pharoahs’ Group A match, meet Egyptian healthtech Vezeeta
Read more: This is how Ventureburn will celebrate African tech startups this World Cup

Featured image: Nafham – نفهم via Facebook