Pakistani EdTech, Co-founded by LUMS Alumna, Announces Seed Round Funding Led by House of Habib
Pakistani EdTech startup, Out-Class, launched in 2021 as the “Netflix for Students”, has announced the completion of its Seed Round funding. Founded by a LUMS alumna, Aiman Bashir (MBA 2012), along with two Harvard alumni, Out-Class aims to become an equaliser for education, already serving over 10,000 students through their self-paced, bite-sized courses.
While the round remains open for investors, the company has capped the raise at $500,000. The investment round was led by the House of Habib, joined by other global institutional and angel investors.
Co-founder and CEO, Aiman Bashir, said, “For Out-Class, the stepping-stone has been Pakistan’s test-prep market. We started off by offering crash courses to students to prepare them for high-stakes exams at one-fourth the price of tuition academies.” Together with Ali Nomani, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer and Oosman Bashir, Co-founder, Out-Class is already supporting schools in remote areas of Pakistan such as the outskirts of Quetta and Mardan, with plans to expand to every corner of the country.
Aiman added, “We’re just getting started. Our goal is much bigger - in a country where one-third of the children are out of school, we want to make high-quality education accessible and affordable to all.”
The team poured their life savings to start the company, she added. “From day one, our north star has been to stay lean on operations and heavy on customer satisfaction. This meant spending hours speaking to our growing user base daily, learning what was working and what needed to be improved.”
Co-founder Oosman Bashir, said, “We feel tremendous responsibility in our role towards contributing to Pakistan’s educational landscape and realise it needs a lot of work. We perceive EdTech to be a marathon, not a sprint - something our investors also align on. We sought investors who understood the market and felt a personal skin in the game for the future of Pakistan.”
Ali Nomani added, “EdTech is perhaps one of the most underrated but crucial sectors for our country. We simply cannot meet our growing demand for education; for teachers, classrooms and trainers, with brick & mortar. Technology is the only way to scale education affordably and quickly. To this end, we are keen to partner with all - educators, families, and investors.”