Orcas, co-founded by Amira El Gharib and Hossam Taherin in 2019, is an edtech platform providing live one-on-one tutoring sessions to K-2 students, both online and in-person.
Its self-paced learning environments also help to complement the learning experience.
Having gone live in Saudi Arabia, the startup is now spreading its tentacles to Pakistan after securing US$2.1 million in a pre-seed round co-led by Access Bridge Ventures and CIRA’s NFX Ventures.
Other participants of the funding include Algebra Ventures, Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund, Launch Africa Ventures, and Seedstars International.
In a statement, Taher weighed in on the importance of the funding, he said: “The needs of learners that Edtech companies must cater to today are wide and varied, and for that reason, we at Orcas, have evolved into a learning platform offering the complete spectrum of both self-paced and teacher-led environments.”
With the funding, we can attract the best talent, continue to build our technology product, and also expand into new geographies in MENAP, he added.
CEO of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund, Aly El Shalakany, said the investment in Orcas embodied everything the fund was setup for.
He explained that the fund was designed to double down and scale best-performing startups and to give continued support to amazing founders to build great businesses.
“So far, we are pleased with Orcas’ performance and we are confident that this latest investment will help them continue to be leaders within the space and will now be able to add better and exciting educational solutions, employing cutting edge technology to introduce these products to new markets,” he added.
Orcas is an EdTech startup that specializes in quality tutoring. Sessions on Orca are interactive as possible to ensure the holistic development of your child.
It keeps a record of individual academic performance to recommend and communicate the right career path for your child, based on their strengths & capabilities.
Initially called Cairo Sitters, the startup is on a mission to facilitate youth employment, and pioneer the field of EdTech in Egypt. The platform shifted their model from an offline agency to an online platform and rebranded to Orcas.
Orcas assist your child mentally and academically. Hence, they cater to classes 6-12 as these are the most crucial years for any child’s future.
Techbuild’s take
This recent investment made in Orcas is a great step in the right direction. As stated by the founder, it appears that the raised fund would be geared toward expanding into new horizons as it was set up for.
We say this because, in 2019, Orcas secured a funding round of $500k which was used to improve the platform’s application.
The funding helped birth the introduction of the “Discoveries” section on the platform which was the core focus of the platform at the time.
“Discoveries” was introduced to offer extracurricular activities to students – everything from cooking and art to coding workshops, music trips and culture in a variety of languages designed to engage children while enriching their experiences and developing their skills.
Since the introduction of EdTech platforms, there’s been a paradigm shift in the educational sector, as they are helping to bridge the gap of students’ needs in terms of care and concern, which has been a major concern in the educational system for years.
Different students have different learning abilities and skillsets and schools do an amazing job instilling social skills and knowledge to students.
However, they fail to care for each students’ needs and that’s where EdTech platforms come in, introducing private tutoring to fill this gap.
Orcas is a great platform that not only addresses the concerns of students and parents wanting private tutoring, but also one of the highly educated university students and teachers wanting to impart knowledge while handling a reputable side job.
It provides Egyptians with the benefits of private tutoring and levels the playing field by creating a new job market to help boost the economy.
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