Maqsad, a Pakistani edtech platform, has raised $2.8 million in seed funding at an undisclosed valuation to become the best-funded edtech firm in Pakistan, the startup announced on Thursday.
The latest funding round takes Maqsad’s all-time capital raised to $4.9 million, including a $2.1 million raised during the pre-seed round.
The funding round was led by Speedinvest, one of Europe’s largest venture capital funds, and Indus Valley Capital while Stellar Capital, Alter Global, Johann Jenson (SVP Product at GoStudent), and other strategic angels also participated in the oversubscribed funding round.
Founded in 2021, by childhood friends Taha Ahmed and Rooshan Aziz, Maqsad aims to provide accessible education to 100 million Pakistani students through an end-to-end mobile learning platform that offers teaching, testing, and query resolution for grades 9 to 12.
“We invested in Maqsad because we see potential for it to touch the lives of millions of students and disrupt the education ecosystem,” Philip Specht, partner at Speedinvest, said in a statement. 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,” he added.
According to AatifAwan, founder of Indus Valley Capital, his firm invested in Maqsad 18 months ago, even before the startup had a product or a team.
“We were compelled by the vision Rooshan and Taha had for education in Pakistan”, he said.
“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.”
The platform has already been downloaded over a million times and has answered 4 million student queries in the last six months. Maqsad’s technology, DoubtSolve, and interactive testing resolve a key problem for students who lack ready access to quality instructors.
In addition, Maqsad plans to launch artificial intelligence-based initiatives soon. The long-term vision of the platform is to embed itself across the education ecosystem, and the company has already received interest from private and public sector institutions for potential partnerships.
The startup said the funding will be primarily used to expand the platform’s subject offerings and supercharge the technology behind it.
