We are immensely proud of the impact that our portfolio companies have had on their industries and the wider ecosystem. We hope to showcase this impact through a new series of interviews between our portfolio companies’ founders and Sawari’s partners.
We are excited to spark a conversation about how these startups and Sawari Ventures are joining forces to leave a distinct imprint on the region.

We are kicking off this series with a look at e-learning platform, Almentor. Almentor is a cutting-edge online video marketplace for e-learning and professional development throughout the Middle East and Africa, offering video courses, top-rated training programs, and motivational/informative talks in Arabic and English.
Online education has seen on a significant rise globally, not least driven by the COVID- 19 pandemic. But the Arab speaking region has long been under-served, relying on English-language content that was only accessible to a select few. The launch of almentor.net has changed that, by bringing educational content of international quality
to people in the region accessibly.

To date, the site has more than two million registered users with 29,000+ videos created and over three million content views.
To understand what sets Almentor apart, the kind of impact they have had, and where the company can go, we asked Almentor founder and CEO, Ihab Fikry, and Sawari Ventures Partner, Wael Amin to share some insights.

Ihab, what would you say sets Almentor apart from other players in the
ecosystem/industry? Where do you think you will be able to have the biggest impact?

Almentor delivered several impactful turnkey ed-tech projects in partnership with regional governments and blue chips addressing millions of learners. However, the main target for each member of the Almentor family is to serve, annually, at least 10 million continuous Arab learners through our B2C & B2B subscription offerings on the
Almentor platform. What sets Almentor apart is that we’re willing and eager to learn and implement new things every day, so we are literally growing every day.

Wael, when deciding to invest in Almentor, what kind of impact were you hoping the company would have? Both on the industry as well as a wider ecosystem/society?

We were drawn to Almentor by the founders’ fervent belief in the value of lifelong learning and how it empowers people to achieve their full potential. The Arab world alone has over 100M youth between the ages of 15 to 24, many of whom, for societal, logistical, or financial reasons have limited access to learning opportunities. Almentor sets out to change that, creating top-notch, extremely accessible educational content and availing it to the Arab learner.

Ihab, how was Sawari able to help you capitalize on your impact potential? And what would you say is the value add an investor can bring generally to a company like yours?

Besides funding and helping with the investment ecosystem since Almentor’s inception, Sawari sits on our board as a true partner who works with us on the details without losing strategic focus. This partnership is what Almentor, and any similar start-up would need from a VC partner at this stage.

Wael, when looking ahead, where do you see Almentor in 2/5/10 years? What are you hoping its long-term impact will be?

Almentor’s stated objective is to get to 10M learners over the coming few years. We are confident that somewhere along that journey there is a critical mass, after which the impact will transcend personal development and achievement of the individual learner into broader economic prosperity for our societies.