Nanovate Raises $2M to Pioneer Arabic AI in MENA Markets

Editorial Team

Last updated 15-10-2025

3 min

Nanovate, an AI startup in Cairo, secured USD 2 million in pre-seed funding.

The company aims to develop AI products that understand all 22 Arabic dialects.

Their proprietary language models allow businesses to create Arabic AI assistants.

Nanovate is focusing on expansion in Saudi Arabia and the UAE with its new funds.

They aim to turn Arabic linguistic diversity into a competitive tech innovation advantage.

There’s a quiet buzz around Cairo’s startup scene this week, and it’s all thanks to Nanovate — a young but fast-moving AI company that’s just secured a tidy USD 2 million in pre-seed funding from a group of angel investors. Not bad for a venture that only came to life nine months ago.

Founded by Nancy Madbouly and Ahmed Ismail, Nanovate has set its sights on something many global tech firms still struggle with: proper Arabic AI. The company’s building full-stack artificial intelligence products that can understand and respond to all 22 dialects of Arabic. From smart chat and voice bots to automation tools and fully bespoke AI solutions, the idea is to make technology that genuinely gets the region — linguistically, culturally, and practically. It’s already backed by MINT Incubator by EG Bank and Raya FutureTECH Accelerator, which gives it a decent launchpad.

Ahmed Gamal put it quite passionately, saying the team’s not just building another AI startup but a movement to put Arabic “at the centre of global innovation.” And honestly, I reckon he’s spot on — the gap in Arabic-language AI tools has been a bit of a faff for too long. If this team can crack it, that’s a big win not just for Egypt but the whole MENA ecosystem.

Nanovate has even developed its own large language models (the clever tech behind systems like ChatGPT). The company recently rolled out a Beta version of its dashboard that lets businesses build their own Arabic AI assistants. Imagine a call centre or online store where an AI agent not only *talks* to you but also recognises your tone and can sense frustration, then automatically adjust its replies — quite nifty, right?

With its new capital, Nanovate plans to double down on expansion in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, scale up across industries, and strengthen integrations with CRMs, ERPs, and other core business systems. There’s also a strong push toward R&D and, naturally, hiring more local talent to keep the momentum going.

I remember chatting with a founder last year at an Arageek event who complained that so many AI tools “don’t understand us.” Well… I mean, that’s the gap teams like Nanovate are finally filling. And as someone who’s seen plenty of promising regional startups trip over language barriers, it’s heartening — I’m genuinely chuffed to bits to see Arabic finally taking centre stage in tech innovation.

If Nanovate can keep this pace up, it may well become one of those rare startups that turn linguistic diversity from a challenge into a true competitive edge. It’s early days yet, but the future looks bright — and definately exciting.

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