What Askzad does

AskZad is an Egypt-based subscription digital library platform founded in 1997 that positions itself as the first and largest Arabic-language digital library in the world. The platform aggregates academic, cultural, and referential content from more than 3,500 Arabic publishers, universities, and publishing houses, with archive material extending back to 1823. Content is organized into distinct sub-products covering electronic books (كتب زاد / Zad Books), scientific articles (مقالات زاد العلمية), press archives (أرشيف زاد الصحفي), university theses (رسائل زاد الجامعية), and conference proceedings (مؤتمرات زاد). A separate sub-brand, SchooPedia, addresses the K-12 segment aligned with Saudi Arabia and GCC official curricula. End users are primarily Arabic-speaking academic researchers, university professors, librarians, students, and research institutions, addressing the relative scarcity of high-quality, rights-cleared Arabic academic content on the open internet.

The technology stack is built around a custom digital library platform offering full-text search across Arabic, English, and French languages. The in-house reading application supports text highlighting, note-taking, bookmarking, and a personal bookshelf, and integrates with bibliographic management tools such as Zotero to support citation workflows. Content is enriched with metadata and subject indexing to enable accurate discovery across the corpus. Sister companies Arabia Inform (news content) and Al Motahida Education Group (educational services) supply content and adjacent services, while technology partners Naseej and Edutone extend integration capabilities.

AskZad monetizes through individual and institutional subscription accounts billed annually, with pricing provided on a quote basis rather than publicly disclosed and free trials available on request. Go-to-market is sales-led, combining direct outreach to academic institutions, publisher partnerships on a non-exclusive revenue-share basis, and educational content marketing through newsletters, YouTube video tutorials, and conference participation such as GESS Dubai 2016. The company is privately held with no disclosed funding rounds, parent company, management team, or audited financials in the source data; firmographic headcount is listed at 1-10 employees.

Name

Askzad

Legal name

AskZad

Website

https://askzad.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

AskZad is an Egypt-based subscription digital library founded in 1997 that provides Arabic-language academic researchers, professors, librarians, students, and institutions with books, scientific articles, press archives, theses, and conference proceedings sourced from 3,500+ publishers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Library Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) & Resource Sharing Operations (EDAEAGAK)

Keywords

• Digital library services
• Academic research databases
• Arabic e-content
• Subscription publishing
• Educational content platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Gîza

HQ country

Egypt

HQ region

Africa

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription Services: Individual and institutional subscription accounts providing access to the Arabic digital library content including books, research papers, news archives, conference proceedings, and academic theses

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

AskZad operates a subscription-based Arabic digital library platform delivering access to academic books, scientific articles, press archives, university theses, and conference proceedings sourced from over 3,500 Arabic publishers. The platform includes an in-house reading program with annotation, highlighting, bookmarking, and citation/bibliography capabilities, plus multilingual search in Arabic, English, and French. It serves both individual researchers and academic institutions through tiered subscription accounts.

Product overview

AskZad is a comprehensive digital academic library platform offering multiple integrated content products: كتب زاد (digital books), مقالات زاد العلمية (scientific articles), أرشيف زاد الصحفي (press archives), رسائل زاد الجامعية (university theses), and مؤتمرات زاد (conference proceedings). The platform serves as the first and largest Arabic digital library, hosting content from over 3,500 publishers. It features a proprietary reading program with research tools, multilingual search capability (Arabic, English, French), bibliographic citation support, and includes the SchooPedia sub-brand for K-12 educational content. Available through individual and institutional subscription models.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SchooPedia: Digital information bank for schools and encyclopedic educational library developed by United Education Group in cooperation with Arabia Inform, aligned with learning outcomes and official curricula in Saudi Arabia and GCC countries.
• كتب زاد (Kitab Zad)
• مقالات زاد العلمية (Maqalat Zad)
• أرشيف زاد الصحفي (Archive Zad)
• رسائل زاد الجامعية (Rasael Zad)
• مؤتمرات زاد (Mo'tamarat Zad)

Products and services

• AskZad Digital Library (أسك زاد) Subscription-based digital library platform providing access to Arabic academic books, scientific articles, press archives, university theses, conference proceedings, and scientific journal indices, with multilingual search (Arabic, English, French) and a built-in reading program. Available to individual researchers and institutional customers.
• كتب زاد (Zad Books) AskZad's electronic book library containing academic studies, scientific theses, cookbooks, children's books, novels, and travel stories, with new additions weekly.
• مقالات زاد العلمية (Scientific Articles) Collection of tens of thousands of scientific documents and articles from leading scholars across the Arab world, covering natural sciences, humanities, law, Islamic studies, archaeology, and other topics.
• أرشيف زاد الصحفي (Press Archive) Archives millions of articles from news agencies and newspapers worldwide, with metadata and subject indexing for research and sub-research purposes.
• رسائل زاد الجامعية (University Theses) Collection of thousands of academic theses including PhD and Master's dissertations, plus summaries of hundreds of thousands of additional scientific theses.
• مؤتمرات زاد (Conference Proceedings) Collection of documents from academic conferences held across the Middle East, including research presentations, discussions, and workshop materials.
• SchooPedia Digital information bank for schools and encyclopedic educational library aligned with Saudi Arabia and GCC curricula, developed by Al Mottahida Education Group in cooperation with Arabia Inform.

Quantifiable outcome

• Search in Arabic, English, or French languages

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Arabia InformcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSister company within the same corporate group. Arabia Inform provides news and information content to the AskZad platform, supporting the news archive functionality.
• Al Motahida Education GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSister company providing educational content and services. Participated together in GESS Dubai 2016 event.
• SchooPediaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerA digital information bank for schools and encyclopedia library developed by United Group for Education in cooperation with Arabia Inform. Provides educational resources aligned with Saudi Arabia and GCC curricula.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• Kitab Sawti: Kitab Sawti is an Arabic audiobook subscription platform. While a different format, it is comparable as a regional subscription content service targeting Arabic-speaking consumers with curated cultural and educational content.
• Zotero: Zotero is the open-source reference management tool that AskZad's bibliography features are explicitly designed to integrate with. It is ecosystem-adjacent infrastructure rather than a direct competitor, but shapes the citation workflow expectations of AskZad's researcher users.

Broad incumbents

• ProQuest: ProQuest provides aggregated academic databases, dissertations, and primary source content to universities worldwide. It is an established incumbent serving the same institutional research library customers that AskZad targets.
• JSTOR: JSTOR is a major global digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. While English-focused, it competes for institutional research budgets and is used as a benchmark by AskZad's institutional customers in MENA universities.
• EBSCO Information Services: EBSCO is a leading provider of research databases, e-journals, and discovery services for academic and public libraries. It competes for institutional subscription budgets and library discovery contracts that AskZad also depends on.

Direct peers

• Shamaa Digital Library: Shamaa is an Arab educational, scientific, and cultural digital library indexing Arabic journals, theses, and conference papers. It targets the same academic researchers, librarians, and university customers as AskZad, making it a close product and market peer.
• E-Marefa (EKB): E-Marefa is a Saudi-hosted Arabic digital content platform aggregating scientific articles, theses, and books. It serves Arab universities and research centers, competing with AskZad for institutional subscriptions in the GCC region.
• Mandumah (Dar Al-Mandumah): Mandumah is one of the leading Arabic academic digital libraries, offering theses, journals, and conference proceedings to universities and researchers across the Arab world. It directly competes with AskZad for the same institutional and academic customer base in MENA.

Regional players

• National Library of India (Digital Library of India): Digital Library of India is a regional academic digitization initiative hosting scanned books and periodicals for Indian academia. It is comparable as a non-commercial, region-focused digital library but operates in a different geography and language market than AskZad.

Emerging players

• Noor Library (Ketab): Noor Library is an Arabic-language ebook platform providing free and paid access to academic and cultural books. It overlaps with AskZad's ebook sub-product on consumer and student access to Arabic content.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AskZad
• Facebookfacebook.com/AskZad
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/arabia-inform-askzad

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Askzad