Tactful AI, a startup specializing in agentic AI-driven customer experience infrastructure, has secured a direct investment from Hatem Dowidar, former Group CEO of e&. The undisclosed investment is part of the company's Pre-Series A extension round and comes ahead of a planned next-generation technology rollout. The move signals growing investor confidence in AI systems that support enterprise customer operations.
Investor Profile and Strategic Significance
Hatem Dowidar brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in telecommunications and technology. He served as Group CEO of e& from 2020 through March 2026, having joined the company as Chief Operating Officer in 2015. Earlier, he spent 16 years at Vodafone in executive roles, including CEO of Vodafone Egypt.
Executive Commentary
Mohamed Elmasry, Co-founder and CEO of Tactful AI, said Dowidar's understanding of large enterprise requirements makes his support particularly valuable. He noted that few leaders possess Dowidar's strategic clarity on what major companies need before trusting customer-facing technologies. Elmasry described the investment as a pivotal endorsement ahead of the company's boldest step into agentic AI-driven customer experience.
Next-Generation Agentic AI
Most current AI applications remain focused on answering routine customer queries. Tactful AI's next-generation technology aims to help enterprises build, modify, and evolve complete customer experience workflows directly within their operations. The platform compresses development cycles from months to hours while preserving human oversight and approval at every step.
Platform and Market Traction
Tactful AI's platform integrates engagement, orchestration, governance, analytics, advanced automation, and agentic AI capabilities. Since January 2025, the company has recorded an 11.7x increase in Annual Recurring Revenue and a 32x surge in monthly customer conversations processed. Its client portfolio includes Elaraby Group, Raneen, 2B, Lucky One, Erada Finance, and Simplex.
Investor Confidence in Operational AI
Dowidar said enterprises across the region are actively seeking practical and reliable ways to integrate AI into customer operations safely and at scale. He stated that Tactful has successfully deployed its infrastructure in live production environments, which gave him confidence in the team. He added that the company has the potential to set the industry benchmark both regionally and globally.
Company Background and Growth Strategy
Tactful AI builds the infrastructure for agentic customer experience, enabling businesses to engage customers on every channel and automate with AI agents that act rather than just answer. Every agent action is governed and logged, supporting enterprise accountability. The company was founded by Mohamed Elmasry and Mohamed Hassan and maintains teams in Cairo and Cambridge, UK.
Funding Context and Future Plans
The current extension follows Tactful AI's initial Pre-Series A round announced in February 2026, co-led by Foras AI and M Empire. The company plans to reveal further technical details about its next-generation platform in the coming months. It aims to build on this investor momentum as it prepares for a Series A funding round in 2027.
With Dowidar's investment and a rapidly expanding client base, Tactful AI is positioning itself as a key player in the agentic AI customer experience market. The company's focus on governance, human oversight, and live production deployment addresses a critical gap for large enterprises. Its planned Series A round in 2027 will test whether this momentum can translate into broader regional and global adoption.