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Lamsa, an Arabic interactive educational app with more than 100 e-books and regularly updated educational content, just received a second investment from Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), one of the region's leading VC firms.

Launched in Saudi Arabia in 2012, Lamsa has evolved into a sustainable platform featuring animated stories, rhymes, interactive games, and captivating videos in Arabic for children between 1 and 3 years old (toddlers) and those between 4 and 6 years old (preschoolers).

From filling a gap in children's education...

Badr Ward is the CEO of Lamsa. As the father of two (Joory and Adam), Ward felt the need to start working on Lamsa when he faced a problem common to all parents in the Arabic-speaking world: the lack of quality and culturally relevant educational material in Arabic for children.

"We found ourselves stepping into a very fragmented industry and so we decided to align our efforts," said Ward. In developing Lamsa's content, he partnered with educators, authors, illustrators and developers, as well as academic institutions, NGOs, and government entities.

The app is free to download and users get the chance to experience the full experience for a limited trial period of time. After that, they get access to limited content items and have the option to subscribe and enjoy unlimited access. This constitutes Lamsa's main income for now, although the developers are currently validating new revenue sources.

... to becoming a leading edutainment platform...

After a first round of investment in 2013, Lamsa had received $500,000 from MEVP, which enabled it to raise the benchmark when it came to Arabic content for children.

In 2014, Lamsa announced a strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi's Twofour54 and relocated there. "We found Twofour54 to be an innovative environment with a sophisticated high-tech infrastructure and services, which helps us in attracting a new level of talents who want to be part of this environment," said Ward. It even recruited people who had previously worked on some of Disney’s popular titles.

Lamsa's roadmap with Twofour54 involves catering to the huge demand for early childhood Arabic Edutainment in the region. In doing so, it would contribute to building a generation of Arabic-speaking children attached to knowledge in its various shapes and forms.

Following that, Apple featured Lamsa among its "Best New apps & Games" in the kids category on its app store. Most users are currently from Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries, followed by the Levant, the USA, and the UK.

... and beyond

Lamsa has been working directly with children since 2013 to engage them in the creation process. It recently established a user testing lab where it invites them to use the app with full freedom in a simulating environment and studies their behavior  to  enhance its product.  "This is an ongoing learning curve for us and we have dedicated resources working on this important track," said Ward.

Since the beginning of 2015, Lamsa took its collaboration with children to a completely new level and got them involved in actually creating stories and delivering high impact messages related to safety, sustainability, and other important topics. 

See related: Kamkalima Proves Online Arabic Content Is Monetizable and $15M Investment in Quantum Group's Arabic Content Platform