Coded Minds, a leading education technology company, has taken a giant stride towards expanding its product as well as geographical footprint by acquiring an EdgeMakers STEM Learning Lab, an innovative education company in the United States and Canada. Alarabi Investments out of DIFC will be joined by 8 Roads (Fidelity’s venture arm) and Avalon Ventures out of San Francisco Bay Area. All parties associated with this transaction wanted to keep the overall value of the transaction private for now.
Headquartered in San Francisco, USA and Calgary Alberta, Canada, the acquired company provides cutting edge STEM/STEAM, Innovation and Leadership Education, Professional Development and Design Thinking programs for kids and teachers in Canada, the US and rest of The Americas. As per Crunchbase the shareholders include Eight Roads (venture arm of Fidelity) as well as Avalon Ventures.
Omar Farooqui, Founder and President of Coded Minds, said this is the first time a 100 percent acquisition has been made by a Gulf-based private education company in the US and Canada. “EdgeMakers, elite 50-member education team, will merge into Coded Minds and become part of its global educational offerings” he said.
Earlier this year, the company announced the closing of its first round of funding from Alarabi Investments which has valued Coded Minds at AED 44m. No doubt this transaction will have increased the overall value by more than double.
Omar Farooqui, a Saudi national, announced that following this acquisition, the global best practice and STEM 2.0 curriculum will now be available in all regions where Coded Minds is operating currently. “Coded Minds continues to grow in multiple geographies. This acquisition has given the company an overnight global status and a foothold into the lucrative US and Canadian markets. It has also added another feather in the cap by introducing professional teacher development programs with North American certification up to mastery level, something that the combined team has begun work on through blended approach” he added.
Dr. Gina Cherkowski Founder of EdgeMakers STEM Learning Lab believes that the merger is an opportunity for the company to contribute in improving the quality of education in different parts of the world. “Being part of a global company will provide us an excellent opportunity to be global leaders in 21st Century education through our innovative new partnerships in the Middle East, throughout Asia and across the globe brought about through this transaction,” she said. “I am confident that by strengthening our overall core expertise through this acquisition by Coded Minds, we will be able to make a significant impact in developing nations globally. There is no better way to serve humanity than investing in education,” she added. “Our rapidly changing world needs talented people who can solve the world’s most pressing problems through flexible and innovative thinking, technological fluency, and a globally-minded perspective.”
Alarabi Investments who had invested earlier this year into Coded Minds have seen their investment multiplied. The CEO, Mohammad Alghaith, commented “At Alarabi Investments, we aim to create value for our investors through investments that deliver change, value, and impact. And the expansion of Coded Minds into new markets is part of our investment strategy to seek high growth and global reach. Through this acquisition, Coded Minds not only gets access to the global market, but also an experienced team of educators. The acquisition is aligned with our collective goal of bringing international standards to the education sector in the region as well as scaling regional startups on a global platform.”
Rich Levandov, a partner at Avalon Ventures associated closely with this transaction commented that “Avalon and EdgeMakers are excited to join forces with Coded Minds to extend the mission of EdgeMakers on a worldwide basis. We are pleased to be part of Coded Minds and continuing our support of providing 21st century innovation education to students and teachers across the globe.”
Farooqui further stated that Coded Minds is on a mission to close the education-skills gap and prepare students of all ages for the post-Fourth Industrial Revolution world in the 21st Century. “We have reverse-engineered education with a practical, hands-on problem solving and project-based curriculum. We empower children and adults to be creative, innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs in their quest for knowledge” said Farooqui, who is excited about collaborating with Dr. Cherkowski on this critically important work.