Egypt-born, Saudi Arabia-headquartered artificial intelligence startup Intella has raised $12.5 million in an oversubscribed Series A round led by Prosus. The round included participation from 500 Global, Wa’ed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures, and HearstLab.
Founded in Egypt in 2021 by Nour Taher and Omar Mansour, Intella develops AI models tailored to Arabic dialects. Its platform provides transcription, analytics, and customer engagement tools designed for enterprises across the Middle East and North Africa region.
The company said the new funding will be used to expand its product offerings and accelerate its expansion in the MENA region, with go-to-market teams in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. With this round, Intella’s total funding raised stands at $16.9 million.
Intella’s proprietary speech-to-text models cover more than 25 Arabic dialects and have achieved high accuracy levels, positioning the startup as a provider of localized AI solutions. The company supports enterprises in sectors such as finance, telecommunications, and government.
Anchor customer adoption has included a debut partnership with e-commerce platform Jumia, where Intella’s digital human Ziila powers a new voice-ordering feature. The company plans to continue investing in research and development to enhance its Arabic-first AI products and expand its regional footprint.