Lakson and Beaconhouse join hands to bring biggest investment in Pakistan’s education technology sector

Lakson and Beaconhouse join hands to bring biggest investment in Pakistan’s education technology sector

Islamabad, Pakistan: Knowledge Platform (Private) Limited, Pakistan’s leading education technology company, has successfully completed its over-subscribed Series A equity funding round with over US$2 million in equity investment.

Lead investors in the Series A round that have taken a minority position in Knowledge Platform are the Beaconhouse School System, the country’s largest school network, and Lakson Investments Venture Capital (LIVC), one of the country’s leading venture capital firms.

Several prominent individual investors also subscribed to shares in Knowledge Platform. Outside the equity funding round, Future Trust, a trust established by the JS Group, provided a substantial funding facility to support Knowledge Platform’s education mission.

Knowledge Platform’s comprehensive education technology solution includes instructional content, videos, games and assessments aligned to the national curriculum, learning management systems, Artificial Intelligence, data and reporting, teacher training and technical and school support. Through its online and mobile Learn Smart Pakistan product, students across the country study free of cost. Knowledge Platform’slow-cost, in-school Learn Smart Classroom product provides teacherseffective support in the classroom through digitized lessons and assessments for key subjects. Through these products, and others under development, Knowledge Platform expects to transform learning at home and in the classroom.

Knowledge Platform’s education technology solutions are used by over 200,000 students and over 350 public and private schools across Pakistan. In a seminal partnership with Jazz and the Federal Directorate of Education (Islamabad), Knowledge Platform has also demonstrated scalable success in the public school system.Schools that have used the system for over a year have demonstrated over 50% performance improvement across subjects.

Knowledge Platform got its start in Pakistan in 2003, developing learning management technologies for the global corporate sector, and its solutions are used around the world. In a rare instance of Pakistani export of intellectual property, its international award-winning learning technology now powers English education for over 400,000 students in China.

Knowledge Platform’s founder, Mahboob Mahmood,noted: “We are honored to have concluded this round with such strong investors. We aim to revolutionize education in Pakistan and serve at least 5 million students by 2024, and to achieve this we need a strong consortium of partners. Beaconhouse brings with it unparalleled expertise in education in Pakistan. Lakson Investments will play an essential role in helping us navigate the venture capital market. And the JS Group have in-depth experience in funding small entrepreneurs that constitute the majority of Pakistan’s rapidly evolving private school sector.”

Beaconhouse School System’s Executive Director, Nassir Kasuri,added: “Technology is enabling and challenging education in unprecedented ways. Enabling, because it is now possible to expose students to collaboration and learning tools that were unthinkable a decade ago. Challenging, because in a world being transformed by technology, schools are being forced to ask what skills will be relevant for students in the future. By investing in Knowledge Platform, Beaconhouse hopes to use technology to address the challenges of 21st century learning. We believe that our 45 years of experience in education combined with Knowledge Platform’s fantastic education technology capacity will be a winning combination.”

Through this investment, Knowledge Platform is well-poised to consolidate its leadership position in the K-12 education technology space. Faisal Aftab, Managing Partner of LIVC, observed: “The timing for our investment in Knowledge Platform couldn’t be better as EdTech adoption is poised to accelerate, aided by rapidly growing Internet and smartphone users across the country.”

Suleman Lalani, CEO of Jahangir Siddiqui & Company, opined: “The future of education in Pakistan rests largely in the hands of about 30,000 small private sector education entrepreneurs who already educate over a third of Pakistan’s school-going children. With Knowledge Platform’s low-cost, high-quality support, and with funding and governmental support, this industry will transform education in the country.”

For additional information, please see www.knowledgeplatform.com.pk