Maqsad, a Pakistan-based education technology platform, announced that it has raised a $2.8 million seed round led by Speedinvest and returning investor Indus Valley Capital. According to the company’s statement, the oversubscribed round also saw participation from Stellar Capital, Alter Global, Johann Jenson (SVP Product at GoStudent), and other strategic angels.
With the new fundraising, the company plans to expand the subject offering and “supercharge” the tech behind the platform. It also aims to make education accessible for 100 million Pakistani students via an end-to-end learning mobile platform that provides teaching, testing, and query resolution for grades 9 to 12, the statement further mentioned.
Founded in 2021 by Rooshan Aziz and Taha Ahmed, Maqsad offers a one-stop shop for afterschool academic content in English and Urdu to reach a more comprehensive section of school-going children. The platform also provides quizzes and other gamified features for students. It claims the app has been downloaded over a million times and answered 4 million student queries in the last six months. It has consistently ranked as Pakistan’s #1 education app on the Google Play Store.
Speaking about the investment, Partner of Speedinvest, Philip Specht, said:
We invested in Maqsad because we see its potential to touch millions of students’ lives and disrupt the education ecosystem. We are incredibly impressed by Rooshan and Taha as team builders and believe Maqsad is on track to be one of the most successful businesses in Pakistan.
Pakistan also has one of the highest student-teacher ratios in the world, with only one teacher for every 44 students. Maqsad’s query-solving technology (“DoubtSolve”) and interactive testing resolve a key problem for students without access to quality instructors.
Founder of Indus Valley Capital, Aatif Awan, added:
We first invested in Maqsad 18 months ago before they had a product or a team. We were compelled by Rooshan and Taha’s vision for education in Pakistan. Investing again in Maqsad is a no-brainer, as we have seen them bring together one of the best startup teams in Pakistan to build a category-leading product that has helped over a million students.
According to Rooshan, the company recently enhanced its assessment feature, which allows students to self-evaluate confidently, and witnessed consistent 150%+ month-on-month growth in questions attempted.
While currently a purely B2C platform, Maqsad’s long-term vision is to embed itself across the education ecosystem. The firm has already received interest from private and public sector institutions for potential partnerships.
Founders of Maqsad, Rooshan Aziz and Taha Ahmed said in a statement:
We’re laser-focused on delivering a personalized learning experience at scale and have a number of exciting AI-based initiatives in the pipeline.
In 2021, Maqsad had raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Indus Valley Capital. Alter Global, Fatima Gobi Ventures, and several angel investors from Pakistan, the Middle East, and Europe also participated in this round. The startup’s latest funding brings its total raised to $4.9 million.
