Morocco-based SmartProf, an online tutoring marketplace for school-aged students, has closed a pre-seed funding round of US$110,000 to help it expand across its home market and into the West African region.
Founded in 2021 by Hamza and Mustapha Faiz, alongside Ali Faouiz, SmartProf aims to become a one-stop-shop ed-tech platform for private tutoring in North and West Africa.
“We launched Smartprof after noticing that the private educational system was failing in Morocco. We were convinced that every student needs some kind of private assistance in order to overcome the challenges faced at schools. The private tutoring market is very fragmented; finding a tutor is a nightmare. Additionally, there’s no visibility on pricing, so there was a real need for a tech product that creates a great tutoring experience,” said Faiz.
The US$110,000 pre-seed round comes from Plug and Play, UM6P Ventures and a couple of angel investors. It is also backed by institutions such as l’École Centrale Casablanca and UM6P startup campus Startgate. The round will help Smartprof expand across Morocco and West Africa, and hire further developers to improve the product’s quality.
“One of the major challenges of our company is the complex and poor payment infrastructure in Morocco. But the market opportunity for us remains huge, that’s why we try to adapt as much as possible to a very rigid banking system,” Faiz said.
