Aanaab

Aanaab (أعناب) is a Saudi-based digital learning platform that delivers online professional development and training programs, originally focused on teachers and educational leaders in the Arabic-speaking world and later broadened to business and sports sectors. The platform offers a digital library of short courses, specialized professional qualifications and preparation programs for accredited professional licenses, delivered asynchronously through video lectures, reading material, discussion boards, tasks, tests and online meetings. Courses are structured so learners can enroll and study on demand, with certificates issued upon completion and passing (historically requiring a score of roughly 60-70 percent).

The company organizes its offering around three customer types: individual learners; schools and other institutions, which receive access to course catalogues plus a dashboard with real-time data analytics, measurement tools and a recruitment platform; and governments, which receive customized content for district-, region- or project-level training rollouts. Its education sector catalogue includes more than 180 courses, seven professional certificates and over 20 courses preparing for professional licenses, alongside 26 business courses with three consulting tracks and more than six sports courses. Aanaab also markets AI-based teacher tools, including an assistant that suggests strategies for common classroom problems and one that generates structured lesson plans covering objectives, activities and assessment.

Delivery is supported by a network of subject-matter trainers and expert instructors in areas such as educational technology, differentiated instruction and educational assessment, applied behavior analysis, gifted-and-talented education, leadership and organizational design.

Founding story

Aanaab was founded by Mounira (Munira) Jamjoom, who holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Oxford and served as Assistant Governor of Saudi Arabia's Evaluation, Training and Education Commission (ETEC) in 2014 before founding the school development and education advisory firm Emkaan Education. Co-founders named in later coverage are Naila Al Khalawi, who has served as chief operating officer, and Fouad Al Farhan. Reported founding dates differ across sources: 2020 coverage cites a 2016 founding, while later profiles and the company's own reporting to HundrED give 2019 as the year established.

Business model

Aanaab sells online training directly to individual learners on a per-course basis (courses on its site are listed at prices such as SAR 290) and sells institutional packages to schools, companies, and government bodies, which include analytics dashboards, measurement tools and a recruitment platform. It also executes custom content-development and training-delivery projects for government entities and corporates, such as digital training packages built with Saudi Arabia's National Institute for Educational Professional Development and delivered through the national e-learning platform FutureX, driver-education programs for Dallah Driving School, and a music-teaching qualification program with the Saudi Music Commission.

Revenue comes from course and certificate fees paid by individual learners and from institutional and government contracts for course access, custom content development and training delivery. In its earlier model, learners could enroll in courses for free and paid a fee on completion to receive the certificate.

Traction

Reported metrics include more than 384,000 learners who have started on the platform (company website), about 6 million learners and 30 countries as reported to HundrED for 2024, over 390,000 teacher enrollments and more than 200,000 teacher registrations as of the 2024 HundrED profile, and more than 200,000 users across over 10 Arab countries at the December 2024 Series A. Earlier figures were 37,000 enrolled teachers and over 450 educators awarded Cambridge International certificates (2020). Project-level results cited by the company include 615+ readable learning materials and 600+ interactive training activities produced with the National Institute for Educational Professional Development, about 200,000 driver-training learners per year in three languages with Dallah Driving School, and roughly 15,000 kindergarten teachers plus about 500 supervisors trained with the Music Commission.

Latest developments

In December 2024 Aanaab announced the close of a $7 million Series A round funded by Dallah Investment Holding, to expand operations, extend training programs into new sectors and upgrade its technology with AI. CEO Mounira Jamjoom framed the expansion around building skills in strategic sectors aligned with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 human capital objectives. The company's current site shows sector verticals for education, business and sports, AI tools for teachers, and delivery projects with the National Institute for Educational Professional Development, Dallah Driving School and the Music Commission.