Sheraa shortlists 12 education startups for Access Sharjah Challenge 2025

The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, known as Sheraa, has shortlisted 12 startups for the 2025 edition of its Access Sharjah Challenge, which focuses on education, according to a report published on September 1, 2025. The seventh edition of the challenge attracted more than 4,600 applications from over 90 countries.

The shortlist is divided equally between two tracks. The Future-Ready Skills track, run with the Sharjah Private Education Authority, includes Edlytica, Evolve Careers, Certify Me, Peekapak, ProjoTech and Skills Builder. The Arabic in Early Childhood track, run with the Sharjah Education Academy, includes Lamsa, Little Thinking Minds, Hodhud, eduTechnoz, arabee and Jana Reading. A pitch day was set for September 9, 2025, with one winner per track to receive a pilot contract worth 250,000 dirhams. The proof-of-concept phase was scheduled to run from late September 2025 to January 2026.

Sheraa later reported that EvolveCareers and Arabee were the winning companies and that both presented their work at the 5th Sharjah International Summit on Improvement in Education in February 2026. EvolveCareers worked with the education authority on a skills assessment pilot in three Sharjah schools, while Arabee demonstrated a play-based platform for teaching Arabic to young children.