Middle East Technology Excellence Award 2022 for Startup in Education was presented to Zendy
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The platform won the award for startup in the education category, joining the league of past winners such as Du, Amazon (MENA), the Entertainer, & BLOOVO to become one of the most innovative companies in the Middle East.
For tech startup Zendy, it is simply unfair that students, researchers, and professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other developing regions cannot access the same depth of research as those in developed countries. This is despite the rapid shift in the academic publishing spectrum.
Zendy is a product of Knowledge E, a private technology company providing access to digital libraries, training, consulting, and publishing services in the academic sector. Co-founded by entrepreneur Kamran Robert Kardan, it was built in response to the high cost of access to scholarly literature and the limitations of access to academic content in emerging and developing regions.
As such, Zendy, being a fast mover in the industry, offers an alternative to traditional access models. The startup works with publishers and researchers to bridge the gap in equality in emerging regions. It also offers a unique hybrid model for accessing content to meet the consumption needs of academic and non-academic professionals whilst offering publishers a share of the subscriptions’ revenue.
It offers users two options to access content: Zendy Plus and Zendy Open. The former is a subscription-based solution that provides individuals and organisations unlimited access to premium journals from major publishers, whilst the latter is a global open-access solution that features millions of OA resources from leading academic publishers.
Zendy Plus offers unlimited access to research for an average monthly cost of $15, whilst Zendy Open is free and available from anywhere around the world.
Zendy’s monthly user growth rate is 11%, with a sign-up projection of 35,000 by Q4 2022.
Zendy is also an avid supporter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relating to equality and inclusivity in education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for everyone.
“We’re delighted to be recognised amongst leaders in the technology sector in MENA. What started as a simple concept of creating an affordable and accessible digital library, has now developed into a meaningful platform that empowers individuals to leverage research. The best part is that we’re just getting started. Our recent launch in Nigeria and soon-to-be-released feature updates are all designed to continue our mission to support lifelong learning opportunities for everyone, everywhere,” said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan.
It has won the Startup - Education category in the recently held Middle East Technology Excellence Awards for this innovation.
The prestigious awards programme honours outstanding companies in the region that have made exceptional contributions in the pursuit of technological innovation in their respective industries.
This article orginally appeared on Asian Business Review.
![Zendy Signs Agreement With Legal Publisher, Lexxion](/_next/image?url=https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/last-edit-lexiom-edited.png&w=750&q=100)
Zendy Signs Agreement With Legal Publisher, Lexxion
[Dubai, August 2024] - Zendy has signed an agreement with Lexxion, a leading academic publisher that specialises in research in the field of law. This agreement enables Lexxion’s diverse collection to be discoverable to Zendy’s growing user base of over 600,000 readers from 200 countries and territories. Berlin-based publisher Lexxion was established in 2000 and has since built a valuable reputation in disseminating academic research on the EU’s legal and regulatory system. Working with academic institutions and leading law firms across the globe, Lexxion hosts scholarly literature that addresses challenges and pivotal research in European legal systems. “We are happy to partner with Lexxion to bring an influx of legal academic research on Zendy. Integrating Lexxion’s scholarly content on Zendy will not only diversify the research already available on Zendy but accelerate our mission in making academic research accessible everywhere across all disciplines.” said Zendy Co-founder, Kamran Kardan. This partnership with Lexxion facilitates Zendy’s mission to expand the content on its digital library and take further steps towards creating a more equitable research discovery ecosystem. Zendy recently announced a series of new partnerships with IntechOpen, IEEE, IT Governance Publishing, and IGI Global. About Zendy: Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has connected over 600,000 users to academic journals, proceedings, articles, e-books, and more. Zendy is an AI-powered library that is on a mission to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for students, researchers, and professionals worldwide. Zendy recently launched ZAIA - Zendy’s AI assistant for research. ZAIA is a domain specific Large Language Model designed to help researchers deepen their knowledge base credible answers backed by references. To learn more, visit www.zendy.io. About Lexxion: Lexxion is an academic publisher that specialises in legal research. Since its establishment in 2000, Lexxion has worked with academic institutions and leading law firms to disseminate quality academic content that addresses legal frameworks in the EU. To learn more, visit www.lexxion.eu/en/
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Zendy signs open access agreement with Bentham Science Press
[Dubai, July 2024] - The AI-powered digital library, Zendy, has signed a partnership agreement with prominent science, medical and technology publisher Bentham Science. This agreement is set to further diversify Zendy’s open access offering with research across the fields of pharmacy, medical subspecialities, engineering, technology, and social sciences. Founded in 1993, Bentham Science Publishers has developed a formidable reputation by disseminating peer-reviewed research papers in science, technology, and medicine. Currently, Bentham publishes more than 160 journals in print and digital formats, out of which more than 70 have now received impact factor rankings. Zendy’s Co-founder, Kamran Kardan said, “As an evolving digital library, we’re always happy to welcome open access content to Zendy to accelerate our mission in making academic content accessible and discoverable. This partnership with Bentham Science Publishers will add a diverse collection to Zendy in the disciplines of science, medicine, and technology” This partnership plays a significant role in Zendy’s mission to advance SDG-4 (Quality Education) and SDG-10 (Reduced Inequalities) by publishing and disseminating open access research across the globe. Zendy recently announced a series of new partnerships with IntechOpen, IEEE, IT Governance Publishing, and IGI Global. About Zendy: Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has connected over 500,000 users to academic journals, proceedings, articles, e-books, and more. Zendy is an AI-powered library that is on a mission to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for students, researchers, and professionals worldwide. Zendy was awarded Best Startup – Education at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards 2022. To learn more, visit www.zendy.io. Bentham Science Publishers is a leading academic publisher that specialises in medical and general STM (Science, Technology, and Medicine) disciplines. With a diverse portfolio of over 130 hybrid and Open Access journals, Bentham Science aims to disseminate high-quality research to the scientific community worldwide. Founded in 1992, Bentham Science was established "by scientists for scientists" and has always been committed to quality. The publisher maintains the most robust peer review process in the scholarly publishing industry with all papers undergoing a blind review, from a verified pool of experts. For media inquiries, please contact:marketing@benthamscience.net
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Zendy Signs Agreement With Open Access Partner Tech Science Press
[Dubai, August 1, 2024] - The AI-powered digital library, Zendy, has signed a partnership agreement with leading open access publisher, Tech Science Press. This partnership is set to increase the scholarly content within the disciplines of engineering and science on Zendy’s free Open Access plan. Founded in 1997, Tech Science Press has maintained high publishing standards for scholars, researchers, academic groups, and institutions to access relevant and reliable scholarly content. Currently, the publisher disseminates 28 peer-reviewed academic journals that specialise in the fields of science and engineering. Zendy Co-founder, Kamran Kardan said, “This partnership is well-aligned with Zendy’s mission to make academic research accessible globally. With Tech Science Press’ commitment to publishing open-access peer-reviewed journals, this partnership works towards accelerating the accessibility of academic research at a global scale. We’re delighted to host and disseminate Tech Science Press’ open access journals and advance our open subscription offerings as well.” This announcement comes as Zendy continues to forge partnerships with prominent academic publishers to expand its content library and cater to diverse user interests. Zendy recently announced a series of new partnerships with IntechOpen, IEEE, IT Governance Publishing, and IGI Global. The partnership with Tech Science Press reinforces Zendy's dedication to nurturing a global academic community and making scholarly resources accessible to all. About Zendy: Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has connected over 500,000 users to academic journals, proceedings, articles, e-books, and more. Zendy is an AI-powered library that aims to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for students, researchers, and professionals worldwide. Zendy recently launched ZAIA - Zendy’s AI assistant for research. ZAIA is a domain-specific Large Language Model designed to help researchers deepen their knowledge base credible answers backed by references. To learn more, visit www.zendy.io. About Tech Science Press: As a publisher, Tech Science Press (TSP) disseminates fully peer-reviewed and Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) compliant open access Journals that are published online. The mission of TSP has always been to promote open science and uphold research integrity, and TSP is a publisher member of COPE, SSP, ALPSP, CSE and STM. Currently, TSP publishes 28 high-quality open access journals, many of which are indexed in prestigious databases such as WoS, Scopus, Ei Compendex, PubMed Central, and Europe PMC. In addition to journal publications, TSP also publishes a series of academic books, monographs, and conference proceedings. To learn more, visit www.techscience.com