If you’ve ever looked for a coding class and found it was taught only in English, you’ll understand the gap iCodejr set out to fill. In March 2022, when iCodejr was only a few months old, Khaleej Times picked it for its “Star Tech” start-up column. The headline was “Star Tech: Coding made fun, thanks to iCodejr.com”, and the feature told the story of an online coding academy that taught children in English and in Arabic.
Read the original feature on Khaleej Times: Star Tech: Coding made fun, thanks to iCodejr.com, by Joydeep Sengupta.
The feature at a glance
| Outlet | Khaleej Times, Business section |
| Published | 11 March 2022 |
| Writer | Joydeep Sengupta |
| Column | “Star Tech”, Khaleej Times’ series of UAE start-up profiles |
| Type | Editorial feature (written by a journalist, not a press release) |
| What it covered | How iCodejr started, its bilingual English and Arabic classes, personalised learning paths, its plans at the time, and why children should learn to code |
How it started
The feature traced iCodejr back to the UAE’s One Million Arab Coders initiative, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Khaleej Times wrote that this push to make young Arabs confident coders inspired the founding of iCodejr.
It also told the story of Hannan Moti, now iCodejr’s Founder and CEO. Before iCodejr, Hannan had a career in finance, with leadership roles at JP Morgan, Barclays and Fiserv. While at Fiserv, he volunteered with a corporate social responsibility programme working with school and university students. He found that some of them really wanted to code, so he started teaching them himself. Word spread, and soon he had online students from India and the Middle East.
Why English and Arabic mattered
Khaleej Times pointed out that most coding classes for children in the region were taught only in English. iCodejr’s answer was to teach in both English and Arabic, so a child who learns best in Arabic could work with a teacher who speaks it. The feature called this iCodejr’s unique selling point, and it still is: families can choose classes with Arabic-speaking teachers today.
The second strength Hannan described was the learning path. Rather than one course for everyone, iCodejr first assessed each child’s level and interests, then built a plan just for them. As he told the paper, “most of our students prefer individual learning.”
Where iCodejr was in early 2022
The feature gave a snapshot of a very young company. At the time:
- iCodejr had started with 47 students in its first two levels.
- It had a team of 28 trainers and teachers.
- Student numbers were growing about 30% a month.
- It aimed to reach 2,000 students a month across the GCC by the end of 2022.
- It had just run its first hackathon for students in Dubai, and planned to take the idea to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi next.
"A need-to-have"
Hannan used the interview to explain why coding matters for children: technology runs through almost everything we use, and code is what sits underneath it. Learning to code, he said, builds problem-solving, logical thinking and creativity, skills that help children far beyond a computer screen.
“Coding isn’t a good-to-have any more, but has become a need-to-have.” — Hannan Moti, speaking to Khaleej Times, March 2022
That idea has only grown stronger since. Today the UAE has announced plans to teach AI as a subject (KG to Grade 12), and coding is the foundation that AI is built on.
What happened next
Updated 17 October 2026.
A lot has changed since that early profile, but the two ideas at its heart haven’t: teaching in English and Arabic, and a plan built around each child.
- Code Battle grew every year. The Dubai hackathon the feature mentioned became Code Battle, iCodejr’s free inter-school hackathon. It did reach Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, as planned: read about Code Battle 2023, when chapters in three emirates met in a national final, then Code Battle 2024 and Code Battle 2025. Code Battle 2026 takes place on 21 November 2026 at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, and schools can register on codebattle.tech.
- 5,000+ students have now learned with iCodejr, in live online, one-to-one classes for children aged 5–18, covering coding, robotics and AI, taught in English or Arabic.
- Coding for everyone. In 2026 we ran an inclusive coding programme for neurodivergent learners with Behaviour Enrichment, a Dubai therapy centre.
- Bilingual, for schools too. In September 2026 we launched Bloqi, a coding, AI and robotics platform for schools with English and Arabic built in.
Thank you
Thank you to Joydeep Sengupta and Khaleej Times for telling our story so early on, and to the families who trusted a young academy with their children’s first lines of code.
In the news
- Khaleej Times, 11 March 2022, by Joydeep Sengupta: Star Tech: Coding made fun, thanks to iCodejr.com
Want your child to learn coding in English or Arabic?
Our live one-to-one online classes help children aged 5–18 learn coding, robotics and AI, at their own pace and in the language that suits them. The first class is free.
