When you pick a coding school for your child, you’re trusting it to still be there in a year’s time, with good teachers and a plan. That’s why we’re sharing this one. iCodejr has been selected for the Spring 2025 incubation programme at Unicorn Factory Lisboa, the start-up programme run by the City of Lisbon. According to the announcement, we’re one of 49 start-ups from 29 countries in this cohort.

Zawya carried the announcement on 16 April 2025: read the story on Zawya. It also ran on ME News 247 and Market Buzz.

At a glance

ProgrammeUnicorn Factory Lisboa Incubation Program, Spring 2025
Announced15–16 April 2025
Run byUnicorn Factory Lisboa, an initiative of Lisbon City Council
Cohort49 start-ups from 29 countries (per the announcement)
On offer140+ mentors, 150 investors, 100+ corporate partners
How we took partFully remote: online mentoring and pitch sessions
Our aimAdapt iCodejr’s programmes for European schools and meet investors and other education innovators

What Unicorn Factory Lisboa is

Unicorn Factory Lisboa is the City of Lisbon’s programme for growing young companies. Start-ups apply, and the ones that pass the first screening pitch to a jury before a place is offered. There are four cohorts a year, and the Spring cohort starts in April.

Once in, founders get mentoring, training and introductions. For the Spring 2025 cohort, that means access to more than 140 mentors, 150 investors and over 100 corporate partners. The start-ups in the cohort have already raised more than €6.5 million between them.

You can read about the programme on Unicorn Factory Lisboa’s website.

What we set out to do

For iCodejr, the programme is a step towards Europe. Our goals for the cohort are to:

  • adapt our programmes for European schools
  • talk to potential investors
  • learn from other founders working on digital education

We come in with a track record from the UAE: live classes, school partnerships and Code Battle, our free inter-school hackathon. iCodejr is also a Microsoft Authorized Education Partner.

"A strategic step forward"

“Joining Unicorn Factory Lisboa is a strategic step forward as we explore new markets, new partnerships, and new possibilities.” — Hannan Moti, Founder and CEO, iCodejr

Hannan added that the team is proud to represent the UAE’s innovation economy on a global stage, and looks forward to being part of Lisbon’s start-up community.

Why this matters for your child

An incubator place isn’t an award for our teaching, and we won’t pretend it is. It matters to families in three quieter ways.

  • Quality, checked from outside. Places are decided by a jury, and the programme’s mentors have no stake in the companies they question and advise. Outside challenge like that keeps a school honest.
  • Growth that comes back to the classroom. Planning for schools in another region means building a curriculum and tools that work beyond one country.
  • Staying power. Incubators focus on running a sound business. For you, that means a school that plans ahead and is built to be here for your child’s whole journey, from age 5 to 18.

What doesn’t change: every regular iCodejr class is live, online and one-to-one, with a real teacher, for children aged 5–18.

Update: how it went

*Added October 2026.* We took part entirely remotely, from Dubai. The programme gave us mentoring and online pitch sessions, a useful outside view at an early stage. We’ve grown a lot since then: in May 2025 Hannan presented our AI-first approach to education at GITEX Europe in Berlin with the UAE delegation, and later launched Bloqi, our coding, AI and robotics platform for schools, and an inclusive coding programme for neurodivergent learners.

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