• Jordan-based Hello World Kids, an online coding tutoring platform, has raised an undisclosed pre-Series A funding round to accelerate its expansion into the Saudi market. The round was led by Daam Almonsha'at Holding, Oman Technology Fund (OTF) and saw participation from Vision Ventures.
• Founded in 2015 by Hanan Khader, Hello World Kids offers courses in programming, coding courses and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for children.
• In 2020, the company launched HelloCode, an online interactive platform that offers a coding curriculum for schools.
• Beyond Saudi Arabia, the startup will use the newly raised funds to expand into Egypt and Pakistan.

Press release

The Jordanian EdTech company Hello World Kids closes their latest funding round of undisclosed amount. The Pre-Series A round was led by Daam Almonsha'at Holding, Oman Technology Fund, and with participation from Vision Ventures. 

Founded in 2015, Hello World Kids aims to develop unique and fun coding education for kids, at home or in class. In 2020, the company launched HelloCode, an online interactive platform that offers coding curricula for schools to arm new generations with crucial skills like problem-solving, analytical thinking, and data analysis, obtained by teaching them text-based coding science in simplified and interesting methods. HelloCode platform is recognized as the biggest Arab community to teach programming for kids. 

The Edtech sector is slowly becoming one of the most growing industries within the MENA VC ecosystem. The sector also grabbed the attention of both consumers and investors with the onset of the pandemic. Following a consecutive 4-year growth in funding for the sector, funding in MENA-based EdTech startups has grown by 525% since 2018, raising stellar rounds in 2021 YTD across geographies. One of the top EdTech players this year has been Jordan-based Abwaab, raising $20M by the likes of BECO Capital following its acquisition of Pakistan-based counterpart Edmatrix.

Hanan Khader, founder, and CEO of Hello World Kids started the company out of a strong belief in children's capabilities to accomplish amazing work if they were given the right tools. She decided to help in providing such tools and teach kids programming through HelloCode. She added, "Our mission is to simplify the coding education for kids, that's why we have created a new programming language, which we called SmoothY; a unique programming language specifically designed for children to serve as a transitional bridge to the command-based programming languages. Once children learn SmoothY, they will be capable of reading and writing code using Python, Java, JavaScript, or any other professional programming languages in the world."

Today, Hello World Kids has over 350,000 projects submitted by kids younger than 12 years old, and over 4 million lines of code recorded by children using SmoothY on the platform. Commenting on their investment, Ahmed Diab, The CEO of Yazeed Al-Rajhi & Brothers Holding and Authorized Manager at Da’am Al-Monsha’at Limited Holding said, “We truly believe in the importance of EduTech ventures, and the unique importance of providing the coming generations with the right tools to build their future skill-set. We could see clearly the big ambition to grow the business, in addition to the true passion for making the learning process of programming a joyful journey for our kids. These factors were the main determinants to invest in Hello World Kids, and lead the investment round.”

Maha AlBalushi, Managing Director at Oman Technology Fund added, “In OTF Wadi we are eager to invest in the Ed-tech sector which aligns with Oman 2040 vision and have a myriad of untapped opportunities that are worth exploration and investment. Especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the EdTech solution grabbed the attention of both the consumers and the investors significantly. Therefore, we are proud to co-lead this round in HWK as we see the right dynamics of the team and a huge potential for expansion and growth.”

Hello World Kids has launched a big awareness campaign targeting the Saudi market with the tagline (Barmej-min-Badri) or (Start-Coding-Early) to emphasize the skills gained by children when they learn coding early, such as creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and the positive reflection on the kids' personalities. Kais Al-Essa, Founding Partner and CEO of Vision Ventures commented: “I learned programming relatively early, which have highly improved my problem-solving abilities, creativity and confidence. Investing into Hello World Kids empowers Hanan and her team to build the best tools possible for our kids to learn coding in a simple and fun way so they can improve their lives and their chances at participating actively in building the future.”

Hanan concluded by adding that Hello World Company would also be finalizing a new investment round soon to continue their expansion into the Saudi, Egyptian, and Pakistani markets. The purpose of the current round is to kick off the expansion activities in the Saudi market.