Abdulaziz Alsaeed is an education entrepreneur or ‘edupreneur’ at heart. He chose to teach mainly because both his parents were teachers, and teaching has always been close to him. Abdulaziz taught and assisted in teaching programming and machine learning to bright students in top colleges. He enjoys making an impact through teaching, but also kept thinking about the millions of unlucky students who don’t have access to such quality education.
In 2013, Abdulaziz decided to change the way teaching is taught in order to help those students. He went from teaching 20 students a day in a college classroom, to reach millions of students every term. He did this by launching Noon Academy in 2013 - a high growth online education platform in the Middle East. The Academy started with just two tutors and less than 30 students, and today serves more than 4 million students, has a database of 1,500 certified tutors in Saudi Arabia and Egypt alone and recently been able to successfully raise the highest series A venture financing in MENA. By 2023, Noon Academy has a target of reaching 50 million students and helping them improve their lives.
Noon Academy is a full-fledged social learning platform that allows students to study with friends in groups, compete with one another, and attend live sessions with top tutors. In 2018, London Business School has awarded Noon Academy its George Bernard Shaw Award – celebrating an individual whose tenacity (and stubbornness) has won against the odds.
Abdulaziz believes that the real fun in building Noon Academy is not in creating a billion-dollar company but in changing the way millions think and learn, and making high-quality education accessible to everyone.