A Major Milestone for Arabic AI
September 2, 2025 Intella, the market leader in Arabic speech technologies, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Prosus, with participation from 500 Global, Wa’ed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures, and HearstLab.
This funding will accelerate Intella’s mission to build AI models and tools tailored to Arabic dialects, strengthen enterprise capabilities, and expand across the MENA region.
Leading the Arabic Speech Intelligence Market
Founded in 2021 by CEO Nour Taher and CTO Omar Mansour, Intella delivers enterprise-grade transcription, analytics, and AI-powered customer engagement solutions. Its technology covers more than 25 Arabic dialects, achieving record 95.73% speech-to-text accuracy worldwide.
Intella’s Arabic-first approach enables businesses to move beyond generic AI, creating localized and human-like customer interactions at scale.
“From day one, our vision has been to bridge the gap between global AI and the Arabic-speaking world,” said Nour AlTaher, Co-founder and CEO. “With Prosus as a strategic partner, we can help enterprises transform conversations from dark data into valuable insights.”
Building Next-Generation AI for Arabic Dialects
Arabic is highly diverse, with over 25 main dialects and numerous sub-dialects. Modern Standard Arabic is rarely spoken in daily life, making AI localization critical.
Intella’s R&D efforts are focused on creating intelligent conversational agents capable of multi-turn dialogue and contextual understanding. Its recently unveiled digital human, Ziila, debuted through a partnership with Jumia, enabling voice-based ordering and proving its ability to handle complex dialects in real-world environments.
“Our models already set the benchmark for Arabic accuracy,” said Omar Mansour, Co-founder and CTO. “Now, we are building conversational agents that redefine how enterprises engage with their customers.”
Growth and Market Opportunity
The MENA region presents enormous potential, with over 7,500 companies relying on Arabic as the fifth most spoken language globally.
Robin Voogd, Head of Middle East Investments at Prosus Ventures, said:
“Arabic AI models have historically struggled with phonetics and dialect variations. Intella is changing that. We are excited to support their mission of building AI locally for the Arabic-speaking world.”
Intella more than doubled its revenue in 2024 and projects 7x growth in 2025. With this round, the company’s total funding has surpassed $16.9 million.
Strategic Focus Areas for Expansion
With the new capital, Intella will:
- Deepen enterprise capabilities by integrating Ziila with its analytics suite, IntellaCX.
- Accelerate regional expansion by growing teams in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
- Innovate in Arabic-first AI by pushing the boundaries of dialectal understanding and outperforming global competitors.
Powering the Future of Arabic AI
This milestone underscores Intella’s leadership in Arabic speech AI and its role as a foundational technology provider for enterprises across finance, telecom, and government sectors. By combining innovation, accuracy, and scalability, Intella is set to define the next chapter of Arabic AI.
