Usama Nini, Mehrad Yaghmai and Alexander Epure. — Photo provided
Qureos helps people in over 127 countries gain in-demand skills through cohort-based learning paths led by world-class industry experts who match Qureos business partners’ hiring demands.
UAE-based EdTech and future of work marketplace Qureos raised $3m in its pre-seed round led by Dubai-based VC Cotu Ventures and Dubai-based VC Colle Capital in New York, as it seeks to accelerate growth and democratize “Learn to Earn” opportunities for talent globally.
The round also saw participation from global and regional investors including Globivest, Plutus21 Capital, Dubai Angel Investors and AlZayani Venture Capital. Several angel investors including current and former executives of Swvl, Boston Consulting Group, Moelis & Company, Careem, Cisco Systems, Koinz, Message Bird, Bain & Company, Hiperpool, Adnoc, QIA and other notables.
Founded in August 2021 by Alexander Epure, Mehrad Yaghmai and Usama Nini, Queros started life as a passion project for founders to accelerate careers by making mentoring more accessible. This passion project was validated when selected by the Dubai Future Accelerators to address the skills gap when transitioning from campus to workplace and between jobs.
Qureos is building an experiential learning community to change the way people connect, learn, and work. Qureos helps people in over 127 countries gain in-demand skills through cohort-based learning paths led by world-class industry experts who match Qureos business partners’ hiring demands.
Qureos solves the skills gap in transitioning from campus to workplace and those changing careers. Globally, 254 million Gen Zers have graduated and are still unemployed due to the skills gap, especially in emerging markets where youth unemployment exceeds 36%. The job market is changing faster than school curricula, and emerging talent isn’t getting traditional internships. Qureos taps into the $470 billion e-learning and future of work markets that are currently separated.
“We believe that new learning models like Qureos, which combine synchronous cohort-based education with community, will become more mainstream and disrupt traditional players. From our perspective, the energy and passion that l team demonstrated from our initial conversations, the traction demonstrated so early, and the deep vision for the product, were all ingredients to fuel our belief in the business. We are excited to be a part of this journey and to see the vision skills enhancement become a reality,” said Amir Farha, Founder and Managing Partner of Cotu Ventures.
With instant applications on many job platforms today, hiring fatigue is becoming a burden on HR teams with 47% of candidates failing job interviews due to a lack of alignment with the company.
By 2025, Millennials and Generation Z will make up 75% of the global workforce according to Deloitte. As a result, companies face an increasing average cost to hire of $4,129 per hire and an average time to hire of 42 days.
By creating a learning community, Qureos enables growing businesses to tap into a talented, in-demand workforce that has been mentored to deliver high-quality work. With Qureos, companies can reduce their cost to hire by up to 79% and their time to hire by 36% with Qureos’ proprietary performance-based hiring framework.
“Learning and hiring are disconnected and Qureos aims to leverage its unique position at the crossroads of these two markets through an experiential learning community where emerging talent can learn from industry experts and gain experience. experience through hiring cohorts led by business mentors,” said Alexander Epure. , co-founder and CEO of Qureos.
“Qureos is looking for a massive opportunity with the ultimate goal of creating an ecosystem that unlocks the potential of human capital. There is huge untapped potential among emerging talent that is not being tapped and it’s time we created an inspiring story that brings together people who align with our mission,” the founders said.
Thanks to the platform’s native network effects, Qureos has been able to achieve phenomenal organic growth of over 25,000 users, as well as attract mentors from leading organizations such as Google, Paypal, Amazon, Cisco and more. than 100 business partners worldwide.
“Creators and industry experts can seamlessly monetize their knowledge, build an online presence and personal brand while giving back to the local and global community.” said Tomas Panek – Digital Marketing at Qatar Airways.
Victoria Grace, Founder and Managing Partner of Colle Capital, said, “We see tremendous opportunity in Qureos’ mission to bridge knowledge gaps and enhance the skills of professionals by leveraging the extraordinary pathway with the direct mentoring. Simultaneously, this platform provides a fantastic opportunity for highly skilled individuals to directly monetize their knowledge base, compounded by distinct network effects, and for businesses to access a pool of motivated, high-quality talent. It is also extremely gratifying to see the proliferation of entrepreneurial talent in the region as a direct result of Swvl’s success. It is clear to us at Colle Capital that the rising Swvl Mafia will be at the forefront of ushering in a new and exciting wave of innovation in the MENA region and beyond.
In November 2021, Qureos announced its partnership with DP World, a multinational logistics provider based in Dubai, to digitize the Tumoohi program, an initiative to support Emirati society and contribute to the efforts of the Government of the United Arab Emirates to enable the Emirati youth.
“I’m thrilled to see Swvl alumni Alex and Usama and the rest of the founding team host a very successful, oversubscribed round and launch in multiple markets. From Swvl’s reliable and affordable transportation to Swvl’s Learn to Earn model Qureos, the shared mission is to improve access to work and education opportunities and to empower livelihoods.I am also encouraged to see Victoria, CEO of Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital, with whom SPAC Swvl has partnered associates, continue to invest in emerging global players in the Middle East to expand internationally and access global pools of capital,” said Youssef Salem, CFO of Swvl and member of the advisory board of Qureos.
Qureos plans to use this investment to develop product-focused operations and expand its remote team with a focus on hiring talent for their offices in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and India. Its diverse team comes from 11 cities and 10 nationalities with experiences at Swvl, Cisco, Careem, EY, Daraz, HSBC and Aleph. — [email protected]
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