ISLAMABAD: Jordan has tapped into Pakistan’s growing educational technology sector with a recent acquisition of e-learning company Edmatrix, the Pakistani firm confirmed on Thursday, as more EdTech collaborations are expected to come to the local market. 

The Jordanian online education platform, Abwaab, began its operations in 2019 and has since expanded into Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It becomes the second Middle Eastern company to penetrate the Pakistani EdTech sector, after Saudi Arabia’s Noon Academy entered the local market in September.

As the companies announced their partnership earlier this week, Edmatrix co-founder and chief executive officer Raja Ahmed told Arab News his company will now be a subsidiary of Abwaab but its management and goal to transform Pakistan’s education sector remain the same.

Edmatrix has been digitizing secondary school curriculum from grade 9 to 12 for local boards and also Cambridge curriculum of O and A levels.

“We started Edmatrix last year in Lahore after the pandemic began. Our ambition was to transform Pakistan’s education sector,” he said. “By partnering with Abwaab, we will not only be able to accelerate our pace but also create a greater impact by helping millions of students across the region.”

Abwaab co-founder and chief executive Sabri Hakim says he is also looking forward to making a positive impact: “We can’t wait to make use of the exceptional talent pool in Pakistan as well as the potential of impact Abwaab can create there.”

Pakistan’s EdTech sector is seen as having tremendous potential.

The Saudi company which was the first Middle Eastern investor into the market, Noon Academy, told Arab News 1.5 million students had registered with its online platform in less than a year.

“Students have been using our app across Pakistan,” Noor Academy human resources head Ali Nawaz said.

He added that several Pakistani start-ups were working in the EdTech sector, but their outreach was limited due to resource constraints and Abwaab’s arrival is a welcome development.

Nadeem Nasir, a spokesperson for Ignite, a national technology fund that supports the establishment of start-ups in Pakistan said such partnerships can also open opportunities for Pakistani start-ups in the Middle East and more EdTech collaborations are expected due to the changing environment of the educational sector.

“Such collaborations should increase, especially after the coronavirus pandemic,” he told Arab News.

“The requirements of local education sector are changing and there is more scope for online teaching platforms.”