Edtech startup Manara raises $3 million in pre-seed funding

Techloy -

Edtech startup Manara has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding for its training ­­programme with the aim of growing the tech-talent pool in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

  • The startup offers tuition-free training in computer science to students who qualify and are able to commit 10% of their salary in their first two years of employment to Manara.
  • The funding will be used to scale from training 60 to 6,000 engineers per year, as well as to launch a self-service product for interview practice, networking and mentorship, targeting software engineers from across the globe.
  • Payment giant Stripe led the round, with participation from Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn; Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinator; Eric Ries, the founder of Lean Startup, and Mudassir Sheikha, the founder and CEO of Careem.
  • Founded in 2021 by Iliana Montauk and Laila Abudahi, the edtech startups alumni have eventually moved to big tech companies such as Meta and Google across Europe and the United States.