Sparkhub has launched a local Startup Grind X chapter in Male’ in partnership with Dhiraagu.

For those unfamiliar with Startup Grind, it is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring and connecting entrepreneurs across the world with an aim to educate, inspire and build a strong network of entrepreneurs. Founded in Silicon Valley, the cornerstones of the global movement are events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons learned on the road to building great companies.

The first Startup Grind X Male’ Chapter featured Mr. Eedham Rasheed, founder and CEO of Hologo World. Hologo World is the mastermind behind "Hologo Education", an Augmented Reality (AR) based mobile and interactive educational platform which is marketed towards students, teachers and schools and has so far received over 40,000 downloads with a daily average of 450 downloads.

The session was moderated by Mr. Ali Haris, the Chapter Director for Startup Grind x Male’ and co-founder of SparkHub.

In his talk, Eedham focused on the challenges he faced in building Hologo World and shared his struggles in building his startup and imparted his personal experience following the inception of Hologo World. “For me, building the next big thing in EdTech was not my main concern. Our aim from day 1 was to make education accessible for everyone. It was a collective drive behind our company to provide each and every student an interactive learning platform across the Maldives that lead our company to where it is today.”

Mr Eedham Rasheed is also an Executive Director at Islander Education, which is the largest private sector education company in the Maldives, operating in 13 schools with over 4,200 students.

Eedham is also credited with pioneering a nationwide digital education initiative with TeachingTube.com that has provided online educational resources to over 18,500 students sitting for the Cambridge O Levels from over 150 remote islands in the Maldives. TeachingTube.com also has over 150,000 signups from over 63 countries with over 500 GB of customized educational content in the Cambridge GCE, IGCSE and Edexcel IGCSE O Level curriculum.