Hello World Kids, a Jordan-based online coding tutoring platform, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding round led by Daam Almonsha’at Holding, Oman Technology Fund, and with participation from Vision Ventures.
The fresh funds will be utilized to accelerate its expansion into the Saudi market, Egypt and Pakistan.
Founded in 2015, Hello World Kids aims to develop unique and fun coding education for kids, at home or in class. The platform offers courses in programming, coding courses and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for children.
Hello World Kids mission is to make the education of coding as easy and accessible as possible. Coding is an essential skill that must be ingrained in the educational journey from very early on. The startup owns and operates HelloCode.me, a full-featured, interactive, multilingual smart online platform for kids to learn and practice coding.
In 2020, the company launched HelloCode, an online interactive platform that offers a coding curriculum for schools to arm new generations with crucial skills like problem-solving, analytical thinking, and data analysis, obtained by teaching them text-based coding science in simplified and interesting methods. HelloCode platform is recognized as the biggest Arab community to teach programming for kids.
Speaking about the company, Founder and CEO of Hello World Kids, Hanan Khader, said, “Our mission is to simplify the coding education for kids, that’s why we have created a new programming language, which we called SmoothY; a unique programming language specifically designed for children to serve as a transitional bridge to the command-based programming languages. Once children learn SmoothY, they will be capable of reading and writing code using Python, Java, JavaScript, or any other professional programming languages in the world.”
The startup claims to have over 350,000 projects submitted by kids younger than 12 years old, and over 4 million lines of code recorded by children using SmoothY on the platform.
Commenting on the funding, CEO of Yazeed Al-Rajhi & Brothers Holding and the Authorized Manager of Da’am Al-Monsha’at Limited Holding said, “We truly believe in the importance of EduTech ventures, and the unique importance of providing the coming generations with the right tools to build their future skill-set. We could see clearly the big ambition to grow the business, in addition to the true passion for making the learning process of programming a joyful journey for our kids. These factors were the main determinants to invest in Hello World Kids, and lead the investment round.”
Hello World Kids has launched a big awareness campaign targeting the Saudi market with the tagline (Barmej-min-Badri) or (Start-Coding-Early) to emphasize the skills gained by children when they learn coding early, such as creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking, and the positive reflection on the kids’ personalities. The company believes that children have great ability and creativity to be programmers and entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, Hello World Kids had raised $950,000 in a seed round from Oman Technology Fund