Intella, the Egyptian-founded Arabic Arabic speech intelligence startup, has closed $12.5 million to launch its new conversational AI agent, Ziila, to work in tandem with its intellaCX analytics product.
The Series A round was led by Prosus, with participation from 500 Global, Wa’ed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures and HearstLab, the investment arm of Hearst Corporation. With today’s round announcement, the company has raised over $16.9 million in funding.
“From day one, our vision has been to bridge the gap between global AI advancements and the Arabic-speaking world,” said Nour AlTaher, Co-founder and CEO of Intella. “This funding allows us to accelerate our goal of helping every enterprise in the region transform their customer conversations from dark data into a strategic asset.”
Ziila’s launch will create a complete product suite that enables enterprises to both analyse conversations and build next-generation, voice-based customer experiences. With the funding, Intella will double down on R&D, product expansion, and hire new AI talent.
Founded in 2021 by CEO Nour Taher and CTO Omar Mansour, Intella offers enterprise-grade transcription, analytics, and AI-powered customer engagement tools for more than 25 dialects.
Intella supports enterprises across the MENA region, spanning sectors such as finance, telecommunications, and government. Jumia is one of its customers.
“The market opportunity in MENA is enormous, with over 7,500 companies and organisations operating across the region and Arabic being the fifth most spoken language globally,” said Robin Voogd, Head of Middle East Investments, Prosus Ventures.
Further, intella will use the funding to solidify its market leadership and expand its technological edge. The capital will be strategically deployed to launch its new conversational AI agent, Ziila, to work in tandem with its intellaCX analytics product. This creates a complete product suite that enables enterprises to both analyse conversations and build next-generation, voice-based customer experiences.
“This round is a catalyst for our product roadmap,” added Omar Mansour, Co-founder and CTO of Intella. “Our models already set the benchmark for Arabic accuracy. Now, we’re focused on building truly intelligent, Arabic-first conversational agents capable of multi-turn dialogue and contextual understanding—redefining how enterprises engage with their customers.”