Mohammed Aldhalaan is the co-founder and CEO of the educational technology (edtech) startup, Noon Academy.

Noon Academy was founded in 2013 and became one of the fastest-growing edtech startups in the Kingdom. It began as a test preparation website but has grown into a comprehensive online learning platform with over 6 million registered students.

The platform incorporates social and gamification features that enable students to have a collaborative learning experience with fellow pupils and teachers through study groups, peer-to-peer learning, and contests.

As of June last year the academy had raised a Pre-B fund of $13 million. It aims to bring together 50 million students and tutors from around the world by 2023.

Prior to founding Noon, Aldhalaan spent almost five years at the Saudi information security company Elm, first as a strategy team leader and then as strategic alliances executive manager.

Before Elm, he co-founded and was a general manager at CloudTech, a startup providing turnkey solutions in the education and training industry.

Aldhalaan began his career as a senior credit analyst at the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.

He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and has completed postgraduate programs from the Queen’s School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and the Kellogg School of Management.