Orcas, ed-tech marketplace, raises $500K in pre-Series A round led by Algebra Ventures

Orcas, the mobile application that connects parents and students with tutors and babysitters, announced that it has raised $500K in a pre-Series A funding round led by Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s leading VC fund, with participation from NFX Capital.

The application’s marketplace provides a platform that connects thousands of students of all educational stages and systems with verified, user-rated, and specialised tutors. With over 20,000 students on the application, Orcas currently operates in Cairo, Alexandria, El Gouna, and the North Coast.

Orcas is managed by Hossam Taher and Amira El Gharib and was founded in 2014.

Taher, Orcas’ CEO, is a medical doctor and started Orcas when he was a student himself. ‘We saw that there were very few flexible work opportunities for university students, but that there was a huge need for qualified and trusted tutors,’ said Taher in a statement.

“We solved this problem by creating a platform for them to connect - creating jobs for young people as educators while simultaneously providing school-age students with the best tutors for them,” added Taher.

Orcas is Algebra’s second investment in a learning platform in the Middle East after backing Little Thinking Minds in 2018.

“Orcas complements strained traditional educational institutions by connecting students with specialised tutors who enable individualised learning, the one-size-fits-all model is leaving many young people behind, and the market is ripe for technological disruption,” said a representative from Algebra Ventures.