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This is the audience-routed pitch. Whatever you came here for — capital, partnership, grant, sponsorship — there's a section below for you.
Last verified: 2026-05-18.
Audience router
| If you are… | Read first |
|---|---|
| A VC, angel, or family-office investor | Investor pitch below + Investors |
| An accelerator or incubator program manager | Partner pitch below + Accelerators / Incubators |
| A grant officer at a multilateral, foundation, or government program | Grant pitch below + Grants |
| A corporate sponsor (CSR, vendor credit, telco, bank) | Sponsor pitch below + Sponsors / Partners |
| A school administrator considering a pilot | Partner pitch below + Pilot |
| A press journalist or analyst | Skip to Contact; we'll send a press kit on request |
What Balqalam is
Balqalam is an open-source school operating system. We automate the operational core of schools — admissions, classrooms, attendance, grading, fees, messaging — so educators spend less time on paperwork and more time on teaching.
- Live at balqalam.com
- Public demo at demo.balqalam.com
- First pilot live at kingfahd.balqalam.com (King Fahad Schools, Sudan)
- Open source under SSPL-1.0 — github.com/databayt/hogwarts
- Arabic-first / RTL-native, English parity (2,247 / 2,243 strings)
- Multi-tenant subdomain isolation
- 4,912 TypeScript / TSX source files, 52 automated tests, 8 GitHub Actions workflows
For the canonical traction number set, see Traction.
The problem we solve
| Pain | Industry baseline |
|---|---|
| Admin time lost to paperwork | 40+ hours/month per administrator |
| Cost of fragmented tooling | $15K–$50K/year per school |
| Data error rate from manual entry | ~23% |
| Parents dissatisfied with communication | ~65% |
| Schools locked into proprietary vendors | Industry default |
Specifically in MENA / Sudan:
- 17M Sudanese children out of school as of 2026; schools reopened February 2026 after a 3-year hiatus.
- Saudi Vision 2030 + NTDP deploying $430M+ across new initiatives, EdTech a named priority.
- MENA EdTech market $14.4B → $33B by 2030; incumbent vendors are not Arabic-first.
Our impact
| Outcome | Target |
|---|---|
| Reduction in admin time | 80% |
| Cost savings vs. fragmented systems | 60% |
| Open-source code, contribution-tracked | 100% |
| Data error rate after rollout | < 1% |
| Teacher admin time | 11 hrs/week → 4 hrs/week |
Investor pitch
For VC, angel, and family-office investors.
Stage: pre-seed bridge. Target raise: $250K-$500K across instruments (grant + SAFE-cap + accelerator stipend blended). Instrument preference: SAFE (cap, post-money). Valuation cap stance: $4M-$6M post-money.
Why now: live pilot school, AR/EN parity, Sudan school reopening, Saudi Vision 2030 EdTech investment surge, AI-cost-reduction window.
Why this: only Arabic-first, open-source, multi-tenant K-12 SaaS at this maturity in MENA. Competitor matrix in Competitors.
Why us: Sudanese-founded team distributed across Sudan/KSA/Egypt/Europe; 18 months of build evidence (14+ epics shipped); contributor model documented in Shared Economy.
Use of funds (12-month, $500K scenario):
| Bucket | % | $ |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering (1 senior hire) | 35% | $175K |
| MENA sales (1 lead + 1 SDR) | 30% | $150K |
| Pilot subsidies (free for 3 months) | 15% | $75K |
| Compliance + entity setup | 10% | $50K |
| Runway buffer | 10% | $50K |
Deal terms we offer / refuse: full term-sheet stance in Investors. Short version: SAFE preferred, 1× non-participating liquidation preference, no full ratchet, no board control at seed, info rights + pro-rata standard.
Next step: 30-minute discovery call → data room access on second ask → term sheet within 6-10 weeks. See Process.
Partner pitch
For accelerator/incubator program managers, school partners, government agencies, NGOs, foundations.
Why partners choose us
| Differentiator | What it means |
|---|---|
| Community | Open-source, community-driven, owned by contributors via shared economy |
| Localization | Arabic-default with RTL primitives; English parity |
| Architecture | Next.js 16, React 19, Prisma 6, multi-tenant isolation, audit trails |
| Economics | Free tier for 100 students; per-student pricing thereafter |
Seven partnership pathways
| Pathway | Engagement |
|---|---|
| Endorsement | Public support and advocacy from your organization |
| Free pilot | 3-month free implementation in a school within your network — MENA-10 cohort |
| Strategic collaboration | Customization for region or sector requirements |
| Training and capacity | Programs for administrators, teachers, technical staff |
| Open-source contribution | Code, docs, translation, design from your community |
| Co-development | New features for special needs (e.g., vocational, rural) |
| Funding | Platform development, regional deployment, specific initiatives |
For specific program applications, see Incubators, Accelerators, Competitions.
Grant pitch
For multilateral, foundation, government, NGO grant officers.
We position under three angles. Choose the one that matches your mission.
Angle A — Post-conflict Sudan reconstruction
17M Sudanese children out of school. Khartoum reopened schools February 2026 after a three-year hiatus. The UNESCO Transitional Education Plan 2025-27 is $580M with no scalable digital infrastructure. Balqalam is the open-source school OS already deployed at kingfahd.balqalam.com, built by a Sudanese-founded team, Arabic-first, multi-tenant. We are not theoretical; we are operationally ready.
Best fits: UNESCO TEP, GIZ, USAID DIV, Mastercard Foundation, Open Society, UK FCDO, OPEC Fund, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.
Angle B — Arabic-first digital public infrastructure
MENA serves 80M+ K-12 students. Incumbent platforms are bolt-on Arabic translations of English software. Balqalam is built RTL-native from day one, with 2,247 Arabic-keyed strings at parity with 2,243 English. We are the open-source baseline that any government or ministry can self-host without vendor lock-in. Vision 2030 + NTDP have both education and AI infrastructure as named priorities.
Best fits: NTDP, RDIA SIGP, Monsha'at, KAUST, Wa'ed Ventures (Aramco), MCIT, SDAIA, Islamic Development Bank, Saudi Awqaf.
Angle C — Open-source education commons
Education software is a public good held privately. Balqalam is licensed under SSPL-1.0 — self-host free, commercial resale forbidden. The codebase is auditable; contributions are tracked via a documented contributor model (Mudaraba / Shirkat al-A'mal / Waqf-grounded). Every grant dollar that funds Balqalam development funds an asset that the world can use.
Best fits: Mozilla Open Source Awards, Sovereign Tech Fund, GitHub Accelerator, IDRC, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Open Source Pledge programs.
Impact metrics we report
| Metric | Definition |
|---|---|
| Students reached | Sum of enrolled students across deployed tenants |
| Schools onboarded | Tenant count with active production usage |
| Admin hours saved per month | Estimated via attendance / grading automation |
| Localized strings released | AR + EN translations live in the codebase |
| Active contributors | Count from shared-economy point system |
| Co-developed features per partner | Features shipped jointly with funder organization |
| Lines of public-good code released | Cumulative LOC under SSPL-1.0 |
We can report quarterly. Reporting burden is honest-budgeted in Grants.
Sponsor pitch
For corporate sponsors, CSR programs, vendor credit programs, telcos, banks.
What we offer in exchange for in-kind / cash support:
| What you give | What we deliver |
|---|---|
| Vendor credits (cloud, SaaS, AI) | Production deployment using your stack; case study; co-marketing rights |
| CSR cash grant | Schools deployed with co-branded parent communications; impact reporting |
| SMS / data bundles | Parent-notification platform reaching X students; brand mention |
| Payment integration | Distribution via school-fee rails; co-product page |
| Distribution (telco / NGO) | Bundled rollout to N schools; joint announcement |
What we will NOT trade:
- Closing-source any portion of the codebase.
- Exclusive payment processing (we keep multi-provider).
- Co-branding under sponsor name (we keep Balqalam branding).
- 3+ year platform lock-in.
For full credit / sponsor inventory + apply order, see Sponsors. For non-credit corporate partnerships (CSR + ministry + NGO), see Partners.
Why open source
Student data is sensitive and curriculum changes constantly — schools deserve auditable, extensible code, and contributors deserve transparent attribution. SSPL-1.0 keeps the code free for self-hosters and protects against parasitic SaaS resale.
The contributor economic model — Mudaraba / Shirkat al-A'mal / Waqf-grounded — is documented in Shared Economy. It is also a feature funders care about: every grant or capital dollar flows partly to contributors via a transparent point system.
Next steps
- Demo — 30-minute walkthrough of the live platform.
- Free pilot — join the MENA-10 cohort: 3 months free, weekly feedback call, case-study partnership at month 3.
- Trial — 14-day evaluation on the demo subdomain before pilot commitment.
- Partnership — discuss collaboration model that fits your mission (seven pathways above).
- Investment — see Investors for stage, ticket, terms.
- Grant / sponsorship — see Grants, Sponsors, Partners.
- Outreach templates — for follow-up cadence and reply scripts, see Outreach.
Contact
| Channel | Where |
|---|---|
| hi@databayt.org | |
| Discord | discord.gg/databayt |
| chat.whatsapp.com/databayt | |
| GitHub | github.com/databayt/hogwarts |
| Production | balqalam.com |
| linkedin.com/company/databayt |
Related
- Fundraising — strategy hub
- Traction — number set
- Deck — investor deck content
- Investors — capital
- Accelerators — global programs
- Incubators — regional programs
- Grants — non-dilutive
- Sponsors — vendor credits
- Partners — strategic partnerships
- Competitions — hackathons + competitions
- Universities — academic partnerships
- Outreach — templates
- Business model — pricing and revenue
- Pilot — MENA-10 cohort
- Shared Economy — contributor model
On This Page
Audience routerWhat Balqalam isThe problem we solveOur impactInvestor pitchPartner pitchWhy partners choose usSeven partnership pathwaysGrant pitchAngle A — Post-conflict Sudan reconstructionAngle B — Arabic-first digital public infrastructureAngle C — Open-source education commonsImpact metrics we reportSponsor pitchWhy open sourceNext stepsContactRelated