ISLAMABAD: Maqsad, a Pakistani edtech company striving to make high-quality education more accessible, has raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital fund Indus Valley Capital, the startup announced on Monday. 
Pakistani startups have recently attracted major international funding, particularly since the COVID-19 outbreak, getting $228 million in investment just in the first eight months of 2021, compared to $77 million in 2020, according to Ignite, a Pakistani government-owned non-profit company. 
Maqsad said its mission was to level the playing field by offering Pakistani students the tools they needed to succeed in exams and beyond. It aims to build a mobile-only platform to offer after-school academic support to 100 million Pakistani students. 
Founded by childhood friends Taha Ahmed and Rooshan Aziz, Maqsad, which means purpose, aims to deliver localized academic content that is a mix of English and Urdu, supplemented by quizzes and other gamified features to provide a personalized learning experience, the startup sais.
“Struggles of students during the early days of the pandemic motivated us to run a pilot,” said Aziz, previously a banker at BNP Paribas in London. “With promising initial traction and user feedback, the potential to digitise the education sector became very clear.”

“It’s about more than just getting students to pass their exams,” said Ahmed, the other co-founder who formerly worked as a strategy consultant for LEK Consulting in London. “We want to start a revolution in the way Pakistani students learn, moving beyond rote memorization to a place of real comprehension.”

A core pillar of Maqsad’s strategy, the startup said, will be to foster a high-growth environment that brings together Pakistan’s top talent to develop a world-class product. 
“We have been blown away by the talent we’ve seen so far and are very excited about the future of the ecosystem,” Ahmed said. 
Aatif Awan, the founder and managing partner of Indus Valley Capital, said the fund had been looking to invest in a startup transforming education in Pakistan since Indus Valley’s inception.
“Maqsad founders’ deep understanding of the problem, unique approach to solving it and passion for impact persuaded us quickly that this was the team to partner with.” 
The pre-seed round was completed in just three weeks via virtual meetings and was participated in by Alter Global, Fatima Gobi Ventures and several angel investors from Pakistan, the Middle East and Europe. 
Ali Mukhtar, the Fatima Gobi Ventures general partner, said: “Pakistan’s edtech opportunity is one of the largest in the world and we are excited to back Maqsad in delivering tech-powered education that levels access, quality and cost across Pakistan’s youth and creates lasting social change.” 
Maqsad will launch its mobile app later this year, the company says.