Alaa Jarrar

The Saudi Times met Alaa Jarrar at his office in Amman, Jordan. What struck us first was not the platform metrics or the product roadmap. It was him, the clarity of his thinking, the precision of his language, and the quiet confidence of someone who has been building something real for a long time. At one point, Jarrar walked to the whiteboard in the meeting room and sketched out the model in a few clean lines. Simple to explain, revolutionary in impact. That whiteboard told the story better than any presentation could.

In a region where education is no longer just a social priority but a national strategy, Alaa Jarrar has been working on the solution for more than a decade. Quietly, methodically, and at scale.

Jarrar is the Founder and CEO of Jo Academy, the first e-learning platform launched in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 2014, and ULA, the AI-powered learning platform he established in Saudi Arabia in 2025. Together, they form the foundation of ULA Group, a regional EdTech holding company Jarrar founded in 2025 with a clear mandate: expand access to quality digital learning across the Arab world, one country at a time.

From Engineer to Educator

Jarrar’s path to EdTech is not the typical startup story. A communication engineer by training, he spent nearly three decades building expertise across the telecom and technology sectors, holding pivotal roles at Zain Jordan, Ericsson, Marconi Wireless, and LCC, with experience spanning Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

What drove him to education was not a pivot. It was a conviction. “The future of any nation is decided in its classrooms,” he told The Saudi Times. “Access to knowledge is not a privilege. It is infrastructure.” That belief became Jo Academy, and Jo Academy became a benchmark, and ultimately, the launchpad for everything that followed.

A Platform Built for Scale

Today, Jo Academy serves more than 2.6 million students and 600 teachers, hosting over 25,000 courses, nearly 400,000 study materials, and more than one million lessons across national and international curricula. Students from primary school through university level access the platform daily, covering everything from structured subject learning to AI-assisted training courses built for the pace of the modern world.

The platform introduced a virtual school model, Jo Academy School, offering every grade, every subject, illustrated lessons, tests, and self-assessment tools in one seamless digital environment. A school without walls.

What makes Jarrar’s model notable is its democratic instinct. Jo Academy runs a dedicated programme for students in Palestine, demonstrating that the platforms ambition extends beyond market reach. Education as access. Education as equity.

That ambition attracted serious institutional confidence. In March 2025, Jo Academy closed a $28 million Series B investment round, a milestone that not only validated the platform’s model but provided the financial foundation to accelerate regional expansion and bring the ULA Group vision to life.

The Saudi Chapter: ULA and the Vision 2030 Generation

In 2025, Jarrar extended his vision into Saudi Arabia with ULA, a next-generation AI-powered personalised learning platform designed for the Kingdom’s youth and the ambitions of Vision 2030. ULA KSA is the first international expansion of the ULA Group, built on the decade of expertise, technology, and institutional relationships forged through Jo Academy in Jordan. More countries are on the horizon. 

Saudi Arabia’s education transformation is one of the most significant in the region. With the government investing heavily in digital infrastructure, curriculum reform, and higher education partnerships, the timing of ULA’s arrival is not coincidental. Jarrar has spent years building relationships with leading universities and educational institutions across the Kingdom, positioning ULA as a trusted partner in the country’s evolution from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-driven one.

The platform’s personalised AI approach addresses one of the core challenges of modern education: scale without sacrifice. Every learner moves at their own pace, guided by intelligent systems that adapt in real time.

What Comes Next

Jarrar’s ambition does not stop at content delivery. He is building an ecosystem, connecting students to teachers, institutions to technology, and the Arab world’s young population to the tools they need to compete globally.

“At Jo Academy and ULA, we are building that infrastructure. A technology-driven learning ecosystem designed to expand opportunity, accelerate capability, and prepare a generation ready not just to succeed, but to shape what comes next.”

In a region full of announcements, Alaa Jarrar has been building quietly and delivering consistently. The classrooms of tomorrow are being constructed today. He started early, and he is not finished. Alongside his team, the work of expanding the ULA Group’s reach across the Arab world is well underway. The vision is clear, the foundation is solid, and the next chapter is already being written.

joacademy.com

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By Boudou Gueffai, Editor-in-Chief, The Saudi Times