ORCAS OFFERS TUTORING FOR EGYPTIANS ABROAD

Orcas, the mobile application that connects parents with trusted, experienced and trained tutors is now accessible to anyone with a browser to the world wide web. The EdTech startup that was primarily known for putting parents in touch with tutors that lived nearby, now also helps parents living abroad maintain their children’s relationship with their home country.

Orcas’ announcement quickly follows Egypt Ministry of Immigration’s launch of their Etkalem Masry campaign with the goal of protecting the Egyptian language amongst
those who have moved abroad. With the most common persona for an Orcas tutor being a 23-26 year old with an international school system background, Orcas has the
perfect pool of tutors that can help Egyptians living abroad stay connected to their culture, country, and language in a modern and effective way. Moreover, this service
also comes at a very competitive price with one-on-one sessions beginning at only 7$ per hour.

“Everyone knows that practice is the key to learning a new language. The children not only need to learn the vocabulary and grammar, but they need to experience expressing their thoughts in this language for it to actually stick; this can be done more easily with someone who is closer in age as they can discuss their common interests, movies and recent trends just as they would in a day-to-day conversation if they were living in Egypt” says Zein Abed, Orcas’ Marketing Executive when asked what differentiates Orcas tutors from language instructors that Egyptian expats can find in local language centers.

According to Ziad Mokhtar, General Partner at Algebra Ventures, "Online tutoring is the logical next step for Orcas. It takes the value they create by matching parents with
suitable tutors in the offline world and multiplies that by 10x. We believe in markets like ours having a hybrid (offline to online) approach is a great strategy for introducing digital technology at a mass scale."

Once a parent downloads the application from the App Store or Google Play Store, they will be able to select Online as their preferred location and immediately have access to all the subjects along with the tutors that are available for one-on-one sessions. After booking the session, the parents receive a link to the virtual classroom which entails both cameras and interactive whiteboards. This means the tutor and student can make notes simultaneously as if they were sitting at a desk together. When comparing Orcas’ online services to their offline services, there are barely any differences to be found apart from the physical space.

The online tutoring service not only caters to Egyptians living abroad, but also to locals who are living in regions with less access to trained and experienced tutors. It also cuts the challenges that Orcas faced when the most suitable tutors lived across the country as online tutoring eliminates this obstacle entirely, giving students access to the best and ideal match.

Since being founded in 2017, Orcas has created a platform which currently has over 48,000 users who are seeking tutors to help their children with homework, exam
preperation or language practice. To this date, Orcas has over 600+ tutor profiles for them to choose from, all of which have passed a mandatory training, handed in their
criminal record and submitted copies of their national IDs.

This is Orcas’ second announcement regarding a new service (following the Orcas Discovery announcement last July) since the startup raised $500,000 in Pre-Series A funding round led by Egypt’s largest VC fund Algebra Ventures and joined by cross-border edtech fund NFX Capital.