Saudi edtech Jeel raises $1.1 million seed round led by EdVentures

Saudi-based education and entertainment platform Jeel has announced the raise of a $1.1 million seed round led by EdVentures, the VC arm of Egypt-based Nahdet Misr Publishing Group.

• Launched in 2020 by Ahmed Sobaih, Jeel is an edutainment platform for pre-schoolers that provides them with educational content prepared by a group of psychologists and educators.
• EdVentures announced the funding during the 2022 Global Impact Summit which highlighted the future of education technology (edtech) and investment opportunities in the MENA region. In addition, the US-based impact intelligence platform HolonIQ participated in organising the summit.
• Based on HolonIQ’s latest data, Egypt holds the largest share in the growing edtech ecosystems across the MENA region, which has a total of 1,500 edtech companies, followed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
• Dalia Ibrahim, CEO of Nahdet Misr Publishing House and Founder of EdVentures, commented: “Driven by the need to transform the EdTech sector locally and regionally, we established EdVentures in 2017, managed to support more than 66 startups, and invested in 13 companies with a market capitalisation of $75 million, creating 1,400 jobs.”