Egypt’s Sawari Ventures leads $4.5m Series-A round in Almentor.net

Dubai-based elearning platform Almentor.net, which has among its founders an Egyptian, has raised $4.5-million in a Series-A round led by Egyptian venture capital firm Sawari Ventures.

The Cairo-based VC was joined in the round, which was concluded last month, by angel investor Mohamed El Amin, Egypt Ventures and Silicon Valley VC Endure Capital.

Almentor.net was founded in 2016 by Ihab Fikry (pictured above), who was born in Egypt, together with Abdelrhman Fahmy, Ibrahim Kamel, Hesham Heikal and Husni Khuffash. The startup also has a Cairo office.

The round brings the total funding raised by Almentor.net since launch to $8-million

The startup offers a catalogue of exclusive training videos and expert talks in Arabic and English in areas that include health, technology, humanities, entrepreneurship and business management.

Sawari Ventures said in a statement published on Monday (7 October) on Middle East and North Africa (MENA) business intelligence site Zawya that Almentor.net will use the funding to accelerate course development and to expand its mentors roster.

The $4.5-million Series-A round brings the total amount of funding raised by the startup since it launched to $8-million. A representative of the startup told Ventureburn Almentor.net has been experiencing 350% year-on-year growth.

Commenting in the same statement, Fikry said the startup, which has more than 10 000 videos on its platform, will use the investment to introduce its audience to “even more enriching” learning experiences.

These, he said, will help young people to enhance their personal development and confidence while increasing their knowledge base.

Sawari Ventures partner Wael Amin said the VC firm is “very pleased” to have led the round and is impressed with what the startup has achieved in two years.

Editor’s note (15 October 2019): The article has been updated to include details on when the deal was concluded as well as figures on Almentor.net’s growth.

Featured image: Almentor.net CEO and co-founder Ihab Fikry (Almentor.net)