Egypt’s OTO English raises seed funding from HIMangel and EdVentures for its online learning platform

OTO English, a Cairo-based online learning platform has raised seed funding from HIMangel and EdVentures, the startup announced today. The size of investment was not disclosed.

Founded in later 2015 by Ahmed El Fadaly, Ahmed Badr & Tarek Nour, OTO (One-to-One) English enables users to learn languages including English and German and some specialized skills using the courses available on the platform. Yes, even though, the startup has ‘English’ in its name, it is not limited to English language only but does have a big number of courses focused on English language including General English, Business English and test preparation for IELTS and TOEFL.

Unlike some similar platforms that allow you to learn the languages or different skills online through recorded sessions, OTO, as its name suggests, offers this through one-to-one sessions with the instructors that the students can attend using its mobile app. The sessions can also be recorded for later usage.

Ahmed Badr, the co-founder and COO, speaking to MENAbytes, explained that students have an option to choose the time slots and days that are convenient to them and OTO’s team will assign them with an instructor who’s available at these times. If the student for some reasons doesn’t like the instructor, they have an option to change them after the first session.

Since launching, the startup has facilitated more than 30,000 hours of learning through its platform for students in 10 countries across the world. They’ve achieved this with the help of 50 instructors, many of whom are native English speakers.

Egypt's OTO English raises seed funding from HIMangel and EdVentures for its online learning platformClick To Tweet

The startup thinks that they have the potential to reach 10 million customers in the Middle East, with at least 2 million of them in Egypt alone.

They plan to use the investment for further curriculum development, marketing efforts and improving their tech so it can handle large volumes of students.

Tarek Noureldin, co-founder and CEO of OTO English thinks that one of the main challenges for them has been marketing. With this latest funding, he hopes to overcome this.

Khaled Ismail, the Chairman of HIMangel, speaking about the investment said, “We strongly believe in the convenience of the online marketplace connectivity, particularly when it is addressing a clear local or regional need. We have several companies in our portfolio that are harnessing this, such as Shezlong for psychotherapists, Filkedma for technicians, Rology for radiologists, Awfar for shoppers, and Fustany for stylists and make-up artists. We are very happy to add OTO to this portfolio, and look forward to supporting its growth.”

OTO English was part of the first cycle of Egypt’s first EdTech accelerator EdVentures. The startup graduated from the program earlier this year.