EGYPT – Tyro, an EduTech platform connecting students with qualified instructors through one-to-one and group sessions, is acquiring Nafham, an Egyptian social startup that offers free crowdsourced educational content, under a share-swap agreement.
The agreement entails Tyro’s leadership taking over Nafham’s management and operations to enhance the customer experience of Nafham’s six million users.
“Both companies joining forces will technically make us the largest Edutech platform in the MENA region providing both, live online tutoring as well as recorded educational video content,” said Mokhtar Osman, Tyro CEO.
“It is crucial to capitalize on both the technology capabilities, and a solid customer base, to be successful. With this merger, we are well-positioned to take the platform to the next level.”
Tyro will be the overall holding company and it will continue to deliver live tutoring services as well as extending technology capabilities to the group. Tyro has also secured a kickoff fund for the new entity from several investors including Flat6Labs, and NXL Partners.
“This deal has put an end to the on-going debate of which is the better and more efficient service offering: live tutoring vs. pre-recorded sessions,” says Ahmed El Alfi, Nafham Co-founder.
“This way, we are able to deliver both services on top of innovative technology that makes for a seamless and immersive educational experience through providing this hybrid model.”
Nafham is one of the largest online educational platforms in the Middle East with 6 million annual users and over 150 million views garnered on their video content. Nafham’s content is focused on school curricula of Egypt, KSA, and UAE for k-12.
“Nafham has a very strong and established brand presence within the MENA region which is why we’ll be focusing on further strengthening the Nafham brand,” Osman added.
Tyro is an online tutoring platform helping thousands of students prepare for their exams & learn a new language. Since the company’s inception in 2017, Tyro has completed over 50,000 paid sessions, has been scaling with double digit growth rates, and is financially self-sustaining.
“Online education is here to stay and its adoption has only been significantly accelerated due to the pandemic. It is now considered a permanent source of knowledge and content generation,” Amir Sabry, Tyro co-founder, said.
“This acquisition also confirms our commitment to delivering Edutech products and services for years to come, and our impregnable belief in our model.”
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