Intelmatix reveals region's biggest AI Series A Round
Intelmatix secures $20m in Series A round led by Shorooq Partners
#Saudi #funding - Intelmatix, a leading deep-tech artificial intelligence company with operations in Riyadh, London, and Boston, has closed a $20 million Series A funding round led by Shorooq Partners. This investment, the largest Series A round for an AI company in the Middle East, also attracted investment from Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Saudi Technology Ventures (STV), Olayan Financing Company, Sultan Holdings, Zain Ventures, and Rua Growth Fund.
SO WHAT? - Intelmatix’s Series A round is both a significant achievement for the company and a sign of encouragement for other new AI ventures (Intelmatix was founded in 2021). Despite the region’s enthusiasm for AI, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, convincing investors to back new AI ventures is not easy. The big ticket investments announced by regional players invariably seem to be made in AI ventures from Asia, Europe or the USA. The most well-defined short-term opportunity for new AI ventures is to provide solutions for large government and private organisations that are already allocating sizeable budgets for AI technology and AI-skills, and have an imperative to move forward with AI plans. Intelmatix seems well positioned to appeal to such enterprise buyers and that’s likely to have been a key consideration for investors in this funding round.
Here are some key details of the Intelmatix announcement:
Intelmatix has announced the closing of a $20 million in Series A funding, the largest AI round in the Middle East and North Africa.
UAE-based, tech-focued fund manager Shorooq Partners led the Series AI round, with participation from public and private institutions, including Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Saudi Technology Ventures (STV), Olayan Financing Company, Sultan Holdings, Zain Ventures, and Rua Growth Fund.
Intelmatix was founded by MIT scientists to address the region's AI gap in enterprise AI technology and human capital, focusing on making advanced AI accessible and impactful for businesses.
The company's flagship product EDIX (The Enterprise Decision Intelligence Platform) is aimed at large organisations with ambitious goals, helping them to digitally transform, improve productivity and enhance decision-making.
EDIX has a modular architecture built on three layers: data, AI models, and interaction. The platform offers customers a wide choice of applications organised into app suites (or 'classes'), such as demand and supply, logisics and marketing.
Intelmatic aims to make EDIX a one-stop-shop for organisations across industries that want to ramp up AI capabilities and enhance their productivity, whilst removing the barriers presented by the global AI skills shortage and/or investing in in-house AI development.
ZOOM OUT - Whilst it is true to say that the Series A round is the largest secured by an AI company from the region, this is indicative of the fact that relatively few Series A rounds for AI startups are launched. Venture capital investment in MENA’s AI sector has increased in recent years, but investment in AI startups in the region has been focused on pre-Seed and Seed stage. There are a number of factors contributing to this, but two key ones are: firstly the shortage of viable, differentiated AI startup startups, and secondly reticence among investors to invest in deep tech and AI ventures. This is changing, with both more IP being developed for AI in the region and increased levels of interest and knowledge among investors.