Egyptian AI Startup, DXwand Secures $1 Million in a Pre-Series A Round of Funding

DXwand, an Egyptian firm that specializes in conversational artificial intelligence (AI), has raised $1 million in a pre-series A financing.

The funding round was led by Shanghai-based Huashan Capital.

Mohsen Abulleil and Ahmed Bakeer, both angel investors, participated in the round. SOSV, a VC firm based in the United States that was one of the first investors in DXwand’s seed round, has also assisted with due diligence and distribution of the fundraising round.

DXwand is AI-powered software that automates text and speech in call centers, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, and on the web. Its conversational AI engine understands Arabic and English and can extract information from conversations and present it on dashboards so that businesses can make quick, informed decisions.

According to Founder and CEO Ahmed Mahmoud, DXwand has expanded “11X year over year,” and “we look forward to accelerating this success even further in the following term.”

According to David Chen, Managing Partner at Huashan Capital, the company can reduce customer service time by 70%, reduce employee requirements by 30%, and increase customer engagement by up to three times. “AI-powered services are exploding in every customer-facing activity worldwide,” Chen said.

“The DXwand team is exceptionally well positioned, thanks to their unique Arabic dialects, NLP (natural language processing), and specialized recommendation engines.

“DXwand was one of SOSV’s first investments in MENA, and the positive experience led to over a dozen more investments in the region,” said Oscar Ramos, SOSV’s General Partner.

According to the release, the funds would be used to assist DXwand expand across the region, though it did not specify which countries it hopes to enter. The money will go toward expanding the company’s market share and speeding up its AI research.