Conversation with Khadija El-Bedweihy – MasterMinds

Today on MasterMinds, we meet an EdTech entrepreneur and visionary who is reshaping how education evolves in the Middle East. Khadija El-Bedweihy has built a career dedicated to using technology as a practical answer to the region’s everyday educational challenges — especially those rooted in outdated schooling systems and traditional learning models.

Her journey is deeply grounded in research and human-centered design. During her PhD studies, Khadija focused on user-oriented education technologies, exploring the usability of different human–computer interaction (HCI) approaches and how they are perceived by diverse types of learners and educators. This academic work shaped her core belief: that real educational innovation must start with understanding people before deploying technology.

Today, Khadija brings this expertise into action through the educational startups she manages, translating research into scalable, user-centric learning solutions. Her work reflects a mindset driven by empathy, curiosity, and impact — proving that when technology is designed around real users, it can truly transform how education is delivered, experienced, and sustained across the region.

My family has always been academically oriented, so I grew up in that environment. From my first days at university, I loved teaching and my goal was to become a teaching assistant and then a professor. I graduated top of my class.

But my interest in business actually started back in middle school. My father shifted into business and founded a company specializing in educational technology, supporting many schools and universities with educational hardware.

I used to visit the company after school, watching him work and learning how he convinced and won clients and how he made sales. All of this, combined with the academic side, gave me a strong sense of management. I later travelled abroad for my PhD, which I earned at the young age of 22.

I worked with experts, especially in the UK, and being in international universities changed the way I think. I learned how to write in a structured way, which leads to structured thinking. But I also believe that if someone wants to pursue entrepreneurship, they shouldn’t spend too many years in academia.

I don’t participate in competitions just to win awards. These awards bring massive value — visibility, credibility, and marketing. People talk about us when we compete, which supports our branding. And of course, there’s the financial support.

For example, we received $300,000 for winning “Best Startup in Africa,” which is equivalent to a seed round for some companies. Competitions also connect us to influential people and deepen our experience.

Our real start was in 2019, after two years of research and feedback. Then everything changed. In 2020, COVID-19 hit. Before that, we were trying to convince customers. We had clients in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and wanted to expand globally. When the pandemic came, universities from all over the world started coming to us.

We worked with 16 countries and had clients across Asia, Europe, the US, Africa, and the Middle East. At that time, we opened our experiments for free to the world, and the feedback was extremely positive. We discovered universities in the US and UK were listing PraxiLabs as a recommended resource for their students.

We grew from 16 clients to more than 25 universities, worked with the UAE Ministry of Education, and expanded while winning many competitions. Today we have offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and clients around the world.

Of course, there were concerns. But one thing my father taught me is that when you have an idea and want to validate it, don’t spend too much money. Start with the minimum cost to prove the concept. We tested the idea in 2016 to see if anyone would buy it.

In 2017, we started selling, which proved the idea had potential — as long as customers were willing to pay. Then we continued building and launched the full version after the pilot.

I always have ideas, but I’m currently fully focused on growing Skolera and PraxiLabs. After taking them further, I may explore other ideas. But education will always be at the center of my thinking, even though it’s a challenging industry — it’s also the most important.

First, passion. Without passion, you won’t continue. You need to be deeply committed to the idea to tolerate all the challenges. Another mistake founders make is being rigid and ignoring others’ opinions. An entrepreneur must trust themselves but also be open to feedback. Building the right team is also essential.

I’ve been blessed with incredible teams in both companies. I always choose people who share the same vision. Some developers have been with me for more than five years because they believe in what we’re building. I don’t treat them as employees — we are a family.

The biggest challenge is that investors aren’t very willing to fund EdTech. They compare us to companies in more profitable industries. We faced this for years and had to fund ourselves.

Thankfully, we continued and achieved real growth. Another challenge was convincing people about online education and EdTech. Before COVID-19, this was a struggle for both companies. Many people still preferred traditional methods. But after the pandemic, things improved significantly, and universities became more aware of what we do.

I hope to create real impact — to know that people have learned and benefited from what we offer. I often hear from individuals who tell me how much they’ve gained. I hope to hear this from millions. I want to help anyone who dreams of studying science to reach their goals.

I think I would still complete my studies, but in a shorter period. I spent four years, and I believe I could have shortened it.

The ideas for Skolera and PraxiLabs came around the same time. While studying abroad and after returning, I was torn between continuing in academia or not. I wanted to feel that I was making an impact. Teaching at university didn’t allow me to create that big of an impact — it was limited to a small number of students. I wanted to create something bigger, and I believed that could happen through education. I started researching impactful educational applications.

At that time, we didn’t have strong EdTech products in the region. Meanwhile, education abroad was becoming fully online, from teaching to grading. That’s when Skolera, a comprehensive Learning Management System, was born.