The Gulf and Egypt Attract New Startup Funding in AI

Startups in Kuwait and Egypt secured new funding this week as they seek to expand their product offerings and scale regionally. The rounds included companies operating in market research and artificial intelligence, signalling a continued inflow of capital into the technology sectors of the Middle East and North Africa.

In Kuwait, "The QA" raised over $550,000 in a pre-seed round from a local family office and angel investors. Founded by Ahmed Al-Ibrahim and Hussain Al-Nashaba in 2025, the company offers a platform for building AI-powered surveys and reaching targeted audiences, having onboarded more than 20,000 verified participants since April 2025. The company will use the funding to expand in Kuwait and develop its research tools.

In Egypt, "Tactful AI" received an undisclosed investment from Hatem Dowidar, former CEO of e& Group, through an extension of its Pre-Series A round led by "Voras AI" and "M Empire" in February. Founded by Mohamed El-Masry and Mohamed Hassan, the company develops agentic AI infrastructure for customer service, with plans for a Series A funding round in 2027.

In the UAE, Popcorn Studio AI raised $1 million in a pre-seed round. Its integrated platform provides AI tools for scripts, characters, scenes, voiceovers, lip-syncing and post-production, including Arabic dialect support. The funding will support technology development and expansion across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

What do these terms mean?

Pre-Seed Round: The first round of funding a startup receives before commercially launching its product, typically involving smaller amounts and valuations.

Pre-Series A Round: An intermediate funding round that precedes Series A, typically used to scale the product and team ahead of a larger round.

Agentic AI: A type of artificial intelligence capable of executing a series of steps and tools to complete a full task, rather than merely answering a question.