El-Medany spoke to Ahram Online on the sidelines of a press conference held on Monday to announce the company’s new steps in Egypt and to unveil its investment plan in the local market.
Classera is an e-learning and education technology platform, headquartered in San Francisco, with a focus on emerging markets in Africa and MENA region in particular. It provides education and training solutions utilising artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality and social learning.
It started operations in the Egyptian market in 2018 and has since established collaborations with government entities, ministries and universities in Egypt with more to come.
Classera is the biggest e-learning platform in Africa and MENA.
El-Medany said that Egypt will be a regional hub for Classera in terms of its investment expansion in the region following its latest funding round, through which it secured a $40 million, adding that Egypt will have the lion’s share of this investment.
In October, Classera raised the money in a series A round led by Sanabil Investments, fully owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF), Global Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, 500 Global, Sukna Venture and Seedra Ventures.
“This intention from our end reflects the importance of the Egyptian market in the field of e-learning and the promising opportunities it has, as well as the significant competences the local market enjoys in this respect. We also plan to expand our employment in the market,” El-Medany explained.
El-Medany added that the company’s investment expansion also include number of stratups and companies merger and acquisition deals to be struck and announced in 2023.
“The growing population, the increasing tendency towards e-learning and the importance the government here is paying for such a kind of education are great potentials we want to seize here in Egypt to grow our business through expanding our activities in the market. Egypt is always a prime target for us,” El-Medany said.
On a wider level, El-Medany said that e-learning is experiencing a reduction compared to last year because of the significant challenges the global economy has been witnessing on the back of the European conflict, but the adoption of e-solutions in this field is high and the sector will continue its growth going forward.
“The future is going to blended learning that integrates the traditional methods of learning with the e-learning solutions remote education. And that what Classera is actually promoting,” El-Medany stressed.
Egypt has recently started paying significant attention to e-learning and its related activities.
In 2020, the Ministry of Higher Education launched Egypt’s first of a kind electronic platform that enables remote learning at the country’s universities in cooperation with Microsoft International and Blue Cloud for Software Development.
The platform avails online educational services and adopts hybrid learning system that has been put in place nationwide since the academic years 2020/2021.
The platform creation came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the associated procedures of schools closure.
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