Saudi's Sawt Secures $1 Million in Pre-Seed Funding for the Development of Arabic AI Agents to Automate Call Centers
Sawt, a ground-breaking AI startup based in Riyadh, is making waves in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region with its innovative voice solutions designed specifically for the Arabic language and dialects. The company, founded earlier this year by Abdulmalik Al-Saeed, Khalid Al-Jaraiwi, and Bassem Al-Harbi, has developed what it claims are the region's most advanced Arabic voice AI models, with a strong focus on customer service automation.
The startup recently secured $1 million in a pre-seed funding round, led by the venture capital fund STV and communications company T2. This investment marks the first investment from STV's newly launched $100 million AI Fund, which is backed by Google and focuses on AI-native startups in the MENA region.
Sawt plans to utilise the capital to scale its engineering team, enhance its proprietary Arabic natural language processing and speech synthesis models, expand technical infrastructure, and accelerate its go-to-market strategy within Saudi Arabia and the broader GCC.
The AI platform developed by Sawt operates 24/7, enabling customer support, bookings, and sales through AI agents. These agents handle a wide range of inquiries, improving customer satisfaction and operational efficiency by managing common customer service pain points.
By redefining the customer experience (CX) in the region, Sawt aims to replace rigid and impersonal Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems with a more human-like and efficient AI-driven voice platform that understands Gulf dialects. This approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also frees human agents for complex interactions.
The models developed by Sawt were created entirely in Saudi Arabia, targeting an underserved market niche in the GCC region where traditional automated systems struggle with Arabic dialect comprehension and cultural context.
With this funding, Sawt is poised to make significant strides in revolutionising the customer experience in the GCC region, setting a new standard for AI-powered voice solutions in the Arabic language.
Artificial-intelligence, driven by the technology, is at the core of Sawt's AI-platform, enabling seamless customer support, bookings, and sales through AI agents that understand Gulf dialects. This technology is set to revolutionize the customer experience in the GCC region, pushing the boundaries of artificial-intelligence applications in the Arabic language.
