Tactful AI Secures Investment From Former E& CEO Hatem Dowidar

Hatem Dowidar, former Group CEO of e&, investing in Tactful AI.

STARTUP VENTURE CAPITALOctober 19, 2026 at 1:45 PM UTC

TLDR

Egypt-based Tactful AI received an undisclosed investment from Hatem Dowidar, former Group CEO of e&.
This funding extends its pre-Series A round, supporting the launch of next-generation agentic AI technology.
The startup has seen significant growth, with ARR up 11.7x and customer conversations up 32x since January 2025.

Egypt-based AI startup Tactful AI secured an undisclosed investment from Hatem Dowidar, former Group CEO of e&. This funding extends its pre-Series A round, initially announced in February 2026 and co-led by Foras AI and M Empire. The investment supports the company's preparations for a major technology launch and a Series A funding round in 2027.

Founded in 2016 by Mohamed Elmasry and Mohamed Hassan, Tactful AI develops an agentic AI-powered customer experience platform. This platform helps businesses manage customer interactions, automate workflows, and analyse conversations across multiple channels. The company prepares to introduce next-generation agentic AI technology, allowing enterprises to build and modify CX workflows in hours instead of months while maintaining human oversight.

Tactful AI has shown significant growth, with Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) increasing 11.7 times since January 2025. During the same period, the platform processed 32 times more monthly customer conversations. Its client portfolio includes Elaraby Group, Raneen, 2B, Lucky One, Erada Finance, and Simplex. The initial pre-Series A round, which this extension builds upon, previously raised US$1 million.

Hatem Dowidar brings over 25 years of experience in telecommunications and technology, including leadership roles at e& and Vodafone. His investment and strategic insight are crucial as Tactful AI prepares for its advanced platform launch and future funding. Mohamed Elmasry, Co-founder and CEO, highlighted Dowidar's understanding of enterprise needs for new customer-facing technologies. Dowidar noted that enterprises seek practical AI solutions for customer operations, which Tactful AI has successfully deployed.

Tactful AI operates with teams in Cairo, Egypt, and Cambridge, UK. The company was reacquired by its founders in July 2025, following its acquisition by European communications company Dstny in 2022. This move allowed founders to regain control and steer the company's future direction. Tactful AI plans to reveal further technical details about its upcoming agentic AI technology in the coming months, ahead of its planned Series A funding round in 2027.

Key Takeaways

The investment from Hatem Dowidar, a seasoned telecommunications and technology executive, marks a strategic validation for Tactful AI, particularly as the company prepares to launch its next-generation agentic AI technology. This technology aims to address a critical enterprise challenge by enabling the rapid building and modification of end-to-end customer experience (CX) workflows, compressing development cycles from months to hours while maintaining human oversight. This differentiates it from most current AI applications, which are often limited to routine query answering. Dowidar's 25 years of experience, including leading e& and Vodafone Egypt, provides not only capital but also invaluable strategic guidance and market credibility, especially given his understanding of large enterprises' requirements for adopting new customer-facing technologies safely and at scale. Tactful AI's impressive growth, with an 11.7x increase in Annual Recurring Revenue and a 32x surge in monthly customer conversations since January 2025, underscores its proven infrastructure and market traction. The company's reacquisition by its founders in July 2025, after a period under Dstny, also highlights their commitment to independently steer its innovation and growth trajectory towards a planned Series A funding round in 2027. This backing positions Tactful AI to potentially set a new industry benchmark for agentic AI-driven CX.

Venture Capital