The problem
War displaced millions of Syrians, many of them highly educated, into countries whose policies made it all but impossible to work legally. Before the war Damascus had been a hub for Arabic learners; after it, native Syrian Arabic speakers sat idle in Bonn, Beirut and beyond with no income and falling into black-market work.
How it works
Launched in 2015 by founder-CEO Aline Sara and business partner Reza Rahnema after a pilot pitched at a World Bank competition, NaTakallam (“we speak” in Arabic) matches Arabic learners with displaced Syrian conversation partners for one-on-one video sessions. Refugees apply online, are interviewed and trained with support from Beirut NGO Arcenciel, then teach, translate and lead cultural sessions. Housed in Columbia University’s Startup Lab in New York, the platform has grown from individual learners to hundreds of schools, universities and corporate clients buying language programs and translation services.
Pain points
Host countries denying legal residency and work; refugees cut off from society and the economy; learners stuck with unaffordable classes — around $60 an hour in New York — and no flexible way to practice dialects.
Business model
Freelance language marketplace with a B2B arm: learners pay per session while institutions pay for classroom programs, translation and cultural training; tutors self-generate income per session regardless of where they live.
Challenges
Earnings track learner demand and institutional budgets; vetting and training quality at scale across dozens of countries is operationally heavy; and as a social enterprise it relies on prizes, grants and awards rather than deep venture funding.
Funding
- Raised: $20,000 prize at the MIT EF Pan Arab Innovate for Refugees Competition (2016), awarded shortly after launch; no venture rounds announced — growth has been funded through revenues, partnerships and social-enterprise awards including a WISE Award.
- Early traction cited at launch: around 35 Syrian conversation partners and 880 learners in 50+ countries (Oct 2016).
Latest — February 2024
A Red Social Innovation profile documented NaTakallam’s scale: a network of 500+ language partners serving 16,000+ users in 110+ countries, with 60% of partners reporting it as their sole source of income and a team spanning Lebanon, the USA, Turkey and Syria itself.