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.