Cairo-based AI startup Nanovate has raised 1 million dollars in pre-seed funding, nine months after officially beginning operations. The round, completed in October 2025, was led by a group of angel investors. The company says the capital will accelerate product development and regional expansion for its Arabic-first AI stack.
Company Background
Nanovate was founded by Nancy Madbouly and Ahmed Gamal to build end-to-end Arabic AI solutions for businesses across the Middle East and North Africa. The startup develops voice and chat agents, automation systems, and customized implementations designed to operate across 22 Arabic dialects. Its stated goal is to help enterprises work faster and more intelligently in their native language.
The Founding Story
Madbouly, now CTO, spent the past six years building a portfolio in emerging technologies and became a visible voice in regional AI. After a break from content creation, she received a surge of messages from followers and founders asking for guidance and solutions. One early inquiry from a Turkish company seeking call center agents exposed a wider market gap, limited Arabic support despite broad multilingual offerings.
From Prototype to Product
Madbouly built an automated Arabic-speaking agent for call centers, which quickly led to follow-on requests for chat automation. The team created Niva, short for Nanovate Intelligent Virtual Agent, positioned as a cost-efficient deployment compared with typical builds. Nanovate registered in January 2025 and signed its first client two months later, marking an early proof point for commercial demand.
Incubation and Recognition
The company is backed by MINT Incubator by EG Bank and the Raya FutureTECH Accelerator. Program partners highlighted Nanovate as a standout graduate for its approach to localizing AI for Arabic-speaking customers. The support provided mentorship, visibility, and early validation in a market that increasingly expects domain-specific language competence.
Product and Technology
Nanovate says it has trained proprietary large language models and integrated real-time speech, sentiment analysis, and emotion-aware capabilities. In September, the team launched a Beta dashboard that allows non-technical users to build Arabic chat and voice agents without code. The platform emphasizes flexible deployment, workflow automation, and integrations that fit into existing business structures.
Funding Details and Use of Proceeds
The 1 million dollar pre-seed round was led by angel investors whose names were not disclosed. Proceeds will fund expansion in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, deeper integrations with CRMs, ERPs, and business tools, and continued AI research and development. The company also plans to grow its engineering and go-to-market teams to support new verticals.
Leadership Perspective
Co-founder and CEO Ahmed Gamal framed the raise as part of a broader push to center Arabic in AI innovation. “We are building technology that understands regional nuance and delivers native-quality interactions for our customers,” Gamal said. “With this round, we are ready to take Arabic AI to a new level for enterprises across MENA,” he added.
Market Context and Differentiation
Arabic is one of the world’s most widely spoken languages, yet it remains underrepresented in many enterprise AI stacks. Nanovate is targeting that gap with dialect coverage, speech capabilities, and customization that large general models can miss. The strategy aims to differentiate on accuracy, latency, and total cost of ownership in real operational settings.
Nanovate’s pre-seed round signals growing investor interest in Arabic-first enterprise AI. With fresh capital, the founders plan to turn early traction into scaled deployments across priority Gulf markets. Execution on integrations, reliability, and measurable business outcomes will determine how far the company can extend its lead in regional language AI.