Lumofy, an edtech platform, has become the first Bahraini start-up to snag ‘sharks’ raising $500,000 in funding on the first episode of Beban.
The provider of employee training and targeted capability building received considerable interest from the panel on investors as Bahrain’s first entrepreneurship themed reality TV series kicked off last week with a trio of tech-focused start-ups pitching their ideas to a panel of investors that included Youth and Sport Affairs Minister Aymen Almoayed.
Mr Almoayed is also the chairman of Hope Fund, which was joined by JEO Capital Management and two angel investors, Yaser Alghamdi and Abdulrahman Al Jiffry, as funders of Lumofy.
Pleased at receiving support, Lumofy founder Ahmed Faraj said: “We are on a challenging mission as we strive to provide unique training models to fulfil organisational needs and ensure learning progression. This investment will open doors for Lumofy to develop even further, giving it greater value and creating more opportunities for the platform to reach its full potential.”
The start-up’s mission is to encourage organisations to diagnose, engage and track human capital competencies and provide automated and personalised learning experiences that transform learning into a competitive advantage.
Recognised as one of the 50 most promising edtech start-ups in the digital training industry on HolonIQ’s annual list in the Middle East and North Africa, Lumofy has seen rapid growth during the pandemic and acquired large regional corporations such as GPIC, Bahrain National Holding and Walaa Insurance as clients.
The firm has also partnered with top international training content provider Open Sesame, in addition to designing its own competency-based learning material which increases the platform’s value.
Lumofy is keen on growing the number of learners on its platform by 10 times, all while expecting to expand to new countries this year, its founder said.
Reflecting on the funds’ first growth investment, Hope Ventures general manager Fajer Alpachachi said: “Lumofy uses proprietary technology to solve a challenge that all large corporations face: providing employees with targeted training based on individual needs. The Lumofy team has been able to solve an ongoing problem and have proven the platform’s effectiveness through their impressive portfolio of clients. By co-investing in Lumofy alongside the private sector, we trust that we will be able to jointly support in the acceleration of the business.”
Beban is the first in a series of nationwide strategic initiatives by Hope Ventures to enable, encourage and empower Bahrainis to launch and grow businesses, she added.
The first episode of Bahrain’s ‘shark tank’ also included pitches by two other technology start-ups: UniPal, an application that provides special offers and discounts to university students, and Printme Online, a platform that facilitates personalising a wide variety of over 200 products with printed images and designs.
All companies that pitched received support from Hope Ventures, the investment arm of Hope Fund, as they partner with BIBF and tech giant Huawei, to offer the founders access to knowledge building content and trips to Huawei headquarters in China.
A new episode of Beban will air every Wednesday this month at 6pm on BTV. The next episode on February 9 will include promising food and beverage businesses.
The show can also be viewed anytime on MBC Group’s Arabic streaming platform Shahid.
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