Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan interview with Asian Business Review
Dec 9, 2022 |
5 Mins ReadThe Middle East startup landscape is buzzing with breakthrough innovation and creativity. Zendy is proud to play a role in the ecosystem of MENA-based startups and we're thrilled to accept the award for Best Startup - Education at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards.
Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan recently sat down with Asian Business Review to accept the award and discuss Zendy's mission, vision, and values.
Kamran commenced the interview by giving a big shoutout to the Zendy team for their tireless commitment to Zendy's mission of providing affordable and accessible academic content to knowledge enthusiasts globally.
Zendy: knowledge without barriers
In 2019, Zendy embarked on an ambitious journey to offer an alternative model of access to scholarly literature. The traditional pay-per-article model was and still is increasingly unattainable for individuals and researchers, especially in emerging regions where access is already limited.
Looking at the success of the subscription market, namely products like Netflix and Spotify, Zendy founders thought why not offer the same experience for users to discover academic literature? Thus, Zendy was born. Zendy is an affordable academic library that offers unlimited access to journals, articles, e-books, proceedings, and more for the monthly price of a single research paper.
With Zendy, students, researchers, and professionals can read, cite, and download leading research. The added benefit of Zendy is saving money, traditional models of access force individuals to pay between $15 - $40 per research paper.
What does the future of academic access look like?
When asked about the future of Zendy and what's next, Kamran Kardan spoke of Zendy mission which is to continue to reduce inequalities of access to knowledge. As a firm supporter of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Zendy (a product of Knowledge E), is working hard to reach new emerging regions.
To strengthen its mission of creating a global knowledge economy without barriers, in October 2021, Zendy launched its free Open Access platform. Zendy Open features over 43 million free Open Access publications on one easy-to-use platform.
With the support of leading publishers, Zendy's growth is a collaborative effort, and the next 12 months will be defining for the company. In September 2022, Zendy launched in Nigeria and has since acquired over 7,000 from the booming African region.
"We're grateful to be recognised as a leading EduTech Startup in MENA and we're inspired by the many other innovators in the industry who are using technology to make a positive impact in communities globally. The team is currently working on significant updates to the Zendy experience and we're so excited to launch new features in Q1 2023. Day by day we inch closer to our mission of creating a world where everyone, everywhere can access knowledge without barriers," said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan.
Click here to watch the full interview: https://bit.ly/3PcgxPB
We Are Proud to Be a Gold Sponsor at PLANNER
We are excited to announce that Zendy is a Gold Sponsor at PLANNER 2024, a biennial convention with a special focus to uplift academic libraries in the North-Eastern region of India Zendy’s Co-founder, Kamran R. Kardan, will be speaking about how Zendy's AI-powered tools, the next generation for academic research, have an impact on the research process, making it more accessible and easy to use as AI keeps evolving academic sector The theme of the event is “Libraries in the AI Era: Applications and Perspectives”When? 19-21 SeptemberWhere? The event is organized by INFLIBNET Centre at Rajiv Gandhi University. If you're attending PLANNER 2024, make sure you visit our booth. For more information please reach out to hello@zendy.io About PLANNER PLANNER stands for Promotion of Library Automation and Networking in North-Eastern Region (PLANNER). The convention of this event aims to explore latest tools and techniques, especially ICT applications, that are influencing today’s library management. The event will focus on promoting library automation and networking, particularly in North-Eastern India, and offer participants a chance to learn new skills and address current issues in library services. To learn more, please visit: https://planner.inflibnet.ac.in/
Zendy is exhibiting at THE Digital Universities Arab World
We are pleased to announce that we are speaking and exhibiting at THE Digital Universities Arab World! Kamran, Co-founder of Zendy will discuss our latest AI integrations and developments around higher education When: 16th-18th SeptemberWhere: American University of Cairo (AUC), Cairo, Egypt What is it? An event that brings together researchers and experts in education and technology to rethink how universities work in the digital age. If you are attending THE Digital Universities Arab World don’t hesitate to reach out with one of our team members at hello@zendy.io We would be delighted to see you during this event. To learn more, please visit: https://www.timeshighered-events.com/digital-universities-arab-world-2024/
Zendy Signs Agreement With Legal Publisher, Lexxion
[Dubai, August 2024] - Zendy has signed an agreement with Lexxion, a leading academic publisher that specialises in research in the field of law. This agreement enables Lexxion’s diverse collection to be discoverable to Zendy’s growing user base of over 600,000 readers from 200 countries and territories. Berlin-based publisher Lexxion was established in 2000 and has since built a valuable reputation in disseminating academic research on the EU’s legal and regulatory system. Working with academic institutions and leading law firms across the globe, Lexxion hosts scholarly literature that addresses challenges and pivotal research in European legal systems. “We are happy to partner with Lexxion to bring an influx of legal academic research on Zendy. Integrating Lexxion’s scholarly content on Zendy will not only diversify the research already available on Zendy but accelerate our mission in making academic research accessible everywhere across all disciplines.” said Zendy Co-founder, Kamran Kardan. This partnership with Lexxion facilitates Zendy’s mission to expand the content on its digital library and take further steps towards creating a more equitable research discovery ecosystem. Zendy recently announced a series of new partnerships with IntechOpen, IEEE, IT Governance Publishing, and IGI Global. About Zendy: Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has connected over 600,000 users to academic journals, proceedings, articles, e-books, and more. Zendy is an AI-powered library that is on a mission to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for students, researchers, and professionals worldwide. Zendy recently launched ZAIA - Zendy’s AI assistant for research. ZAIA is a domain specific Large Language Model designed to help researchers deepen their knowledge base credible answers backed by references. To learn more, visit www.zendy.io. About Lexxion: Lexxion is an academic publisher that specialises in legal research. Since its establishment in 2000, Lexxion has worked with academic institutions and leading law firms to disseminate quality academic content that addresses legal frameworks in the EU. To learn more, visit www.lexxion.eu/en/