DXwand, a Cairo- and Dubai-based startup at the forefront of leveraging conversational AI to automate customer service and employee assistance, has raised $4 million in Series A funding.
The funding round was led by UAE-based Shorooq Partners and Cairo-headquartered Algebra Ventures, with participation from existing investor Dubai Future District Fund.
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This investment will drive DXwand towards expanding its footprint across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It also aims to accelerate research and development efforts in generative AI, knowledge mining, and omnichannel conversational AI within the region.
Founded by CEO Ahmed Mahmoud, a former leader in data and artificial intelligence enterprise sales at Microsoft, DXwand has positioned itself as a key player in the AI sector by addressing language-specific challenges prevalent in the MENA region. Unlike solutions from Silicon Valley, DXwand recognized the need for AI models that catered to Arabic and other languages in the region.
Mahmoud’s journey began with an engineering background, leading to roles at Vodafone and Microsoft, where he engaged with clients to explore the potential of AI in enhancing productivity and user experience. The realization that conversational AI and broader AI technologies were not fully matured in the Middle East prompted Mahmoud to establish DXwand to bridge this gap.
Initially securing seed funding of $150,000 from angels in Qatar and Egypt, DXwand started as a provider of customer-centric chatbots tailored for sales over social media platforms for small businesses. However, the team recognized the need to pivot its business model to find product-market fit and become profitable.
The pivot led DXwand to focus on knowledge mining and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) domains, targeting corporates and enterprises. This approach involves creating a knowledge graph that eliminates the need for manual data labeling, facilitating faster onboarding of clients and supporting sophisticated use cases.
DXwand’s AI-powered software automates text and voice conversations across various platforms, including call centers, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, and websites. The platform comprehends slang in both Arabic and English, extracting valuable insights from conversations and presenting them on dashboards for businesses to make informed decisions.
Noteworthy achievements include facilitating over 5 million conversations monthly and earning the trust of over 200 businesses across sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce, fintech, telecom, government, and legal. DXwand’s digital assistant handles 70% of customer service workload, enabling human agents to focus on more complex tasks.
The Series A funding, combined with previous investments, affirms DXwand as a profitable entity with over $5 million in annual recurring revenues in 2023, representing a 2x year-over-year growth.
Looking ahead, DXwand plans to expand across Africa and Saudi Arabia, recognizing these regions’ strategic importance. The startup aims to continue research efforts in knowledge mining and retrieval augmented generation, forming alliances with technology providers to establish meaningful partnerships within the communities it serves. DXwand’s success underscores the increasing significance and adoption of AI platforms in a market where such solutions are witnessing substantial growth.
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