Lama Karaki

Jordanian tech pioneer building educational platforms to empower marginalized communities

Lama Karaki is a Jordanian software engineer and entrepreneur whose work focuses on leveraging technology to improve education access. Born in 1990 in Amman, she co-founded Karaka Solutions in 2016, creating online learning platforms tailored for Arabic-speaking learners. Her flagship product Edify provides gamified learning modules in STEM subjects, now used by over 200,000 students across 15 Middle Eastern countries.

Karaki's innovative approach addresses both language barriers and gender disparities in education. She developed a unique collaboration with Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, providing free access to Edify through partnerships with UNICEF. Her work was instrumental in keeping over 10,000 refugee children engaged in learning during the pandemic. In 2021, she launched CodeJannah, a girls-only coding academy that has trained 1,500 young women in cybersecurity and AI fundamentals.

A vocal advocate for digital inclusion, Karaki's TEDx talk "How Tech Can Bridge Education Gaps in the Middle East" has become a reference in EdTech circles. Her company's partnerships with Google and UNESCO have expanded their reach to North Africa and Pakistan. Karaki was named one of MIT's 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2022 for her work in education technology.