• Jordan-based edtech startup Wajeez has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round, led by STV with participation from Shorooq Partners, Mawdoo3, and Wise Venture.

• Founded in December 2020 by Mohammad Zatara and Rami Abu Jbara, Wajeez focuses on providing Arabic summaries for global and local non-fiction literature.

• Wajeez claims to have amassed up to 800,000 users on its app-based platform in seven months, offering more than 3,500 Arabic summaries.

• The new investment will help Wajeez add new services such as shortened podcasts, establish new B2B partnerships, and expand into other languages like Turkish and Urdu.

Press release:

Wajeez, the Jordan-based edtech startup and book summary platform has successfully closed a pre-Series A funding round at $3 million. The round was led by STV with the participation of Shorooq Partners, Mawdoo3, and Wise Venture.

Founded in 2020, Wajeez is working towards closing the gap between the Arabic-speaking Middle East and North Africa (Mena) users, comprising 7 per cent of the world’s internet users, and Arabic content constituting only 3 per cent of overall content through their app-based platform compiling 3,500+ Arabic summaries of global and local non-fiction literature.

Since its official launch, the company amassed an audience of 800,000 users in just 7 months by providing a carefully curated selection of summaries for the most popular non-fiction books. After deep vetting and content control, Wajeez produces easily consumable summaries as co-founder and CEO Mohammad Zatara highlights “People in the region often have a preference for shortened summaries of books and content, rather than full books. Through Wajeez, we offer anyone the opportunity to distil the main points from the most popular and award-winning non-fiction books, in Arabic, saving people the time while still extracting the key points.”

This spectacular fund comes as a booster and a promising sign for Wajeez, Talal Damen, Senior Associate at STV, concludes “We are happy to partner with a fast-growing startup like Wajeez, which marks our first investment in the Levant. With the largest library of non-fiction summaries in the region, the company has created a flywheel that only gets stronger with more time, content, and listeners. We believe this to be a significant whitespace in the region, and are excited to partner with Mohammad and Rami on their journey.”

Through this newly acquired fund, Wajeez plans on expanding its offering: developing shortened podcasts “WajeezCast”, B2B partnerships, and expanding into other languages like Turkish and Urdu as its next frontier.