Manara
YC W21San Francisco, US · Founded 2020 · 10 employees · 3 known investors
Manara provides bilingual upskilling and reskilling training for teams in MENA in AI, cloud, and digital skills, partnering with governments, foundations, and organizations. The company combines global expertise with local implementation to help non-technical and technical professionals gain capabilities in emerging technologies.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingEdTechEnterprise SoftwareHR TechEducationUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaFully Remote
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W21)
Manara was founded in 2020 by Iliana Montauk and Laila Abudahi.
IM
Iliana Montaukin𝕏FounderIliana Montauk previously served as a senior product manager at Google and Upwork, where she worked on talent-related products. She founded and bootstrapped a startup accelerator in Gaza, where she increased women's participation in pipeline activities and coordinated a major regional crowdfunding initiative.
Investors · 3
Competitors · 2
by search overlap
Omnara5 shared keywordsOmnara provides an open-source platform for deploying, running, and managing AI agents through a unified API, available both as a self-hosted solution and managed cloud service.
Preply3 shared keywordsPreply is a language learning platform that serves corporate employees through its B2B offering Preply Business, enabling companies to provide language education to their workforce.
Companies competing with Manara for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Texas Islamist Charter School Funded With $75 Million of State Moniestexaspolicy.com · Jul 2026Frequently asked questions
- What does Manara do?
- Manara provides bilingual upskilling and reskilling training for teams in MENA in AI, cloud, and digital skills, partnering with governments, foundations, and organizations. The company combines global expertise with local implementation to help non-technical and technical professionals gain capabilities in emerging technologies.
- Who founded Manara?
- Manara was founded by Iliana Montauk, Laila Abudahi in 2020.
- Who are Manara's investors?
- Manara's investors include Seedcamp, Valia Ventures, Y Combinator.
- Where is Manara headquartered?
- Manara is headquartered in San Francisco, US.