Egyptian deeptech Intella closes $3.4m pre-Series A round

BREAKING NEWSOctober 4, 2023 at 10:32 AM UTC

Saudi Arabia-headquartered Egyptian deeptech startup Intella has closed a $3.4 million pre-Series A funding round, led by HALA Ventures and Wa’ed Ventures, the VC arm of Aramco, with participation from Sanabil 500 and INSEAD's alumni angel network, along with other investors.

Founded in 2021 by Nour Altaher and Omar Mansour, Intella offers real-time, on-demand market research for its business clients across diverse sectors.

In March 2022, Intella closed its seed round at $1 million led by Hala Ventures, with participation from Falak Startups, Beyond Capital, and others. This year, Intella relocated its HQ from Cairo to Riyadh. The new funding will fuel its expansion into the Saudi market and support the development of end-to-end AI models localized for Mena.

Key Takeaways

From healthcare and education to agriculture and transportation, AI is increasingly being adopted by African startups and businesses to improve operations, increase efficiency, and drive growth. Perhaps the most exemplary startup is InstaDeep, a Tunisia-based startup that launched in 2014 to create AI products for businesses and was acquired by Germany’s largest vaccine maker BioNTech in January for up to $680 million. InstaDeep may have grabbed all the attention this year—and rightly so given the deal is the largest of its kind (African startup acquisition) and placed Africa's AI industry on the global map—but there are a number of many other exciting startups solving problems with AI across Africa. AI could add as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, per PwC estimates. Africa has real potential to become a leader on this front, helped by its large youth population, growing middle class, and increasing access to mobile and internet technologies.