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In 2018, Ahmed Mahmoud (CEO) and Mahmoud Gomaa (Growth Lead) co-founded DXwand to assist small businesses in leveraging custom customer-focused chatbots to boost sales on social media platforms. The company began its journey with an initial seed funding of $150,000 from angel investors in Qatar and Egypt.
Having previously worked for Microsoft, Mahmoud observed that conversational AI and other AI technologies were less developed in the Middle East compared to the West. This discrepancy was attributed to the fact that Silicon Valley did not create AI solutions specifically tailored for Arabic or other MENA languages. Subsequently, Mahmoud resigned from Microsoft to establish DXwand.
Initially, DXwand’s primary objective was to address the challenging task of developing an AI system capable of handling various Arabic dialects. After achieving success in this endeavor, the company recognized the need to adapt its business models to the market and achieve profitability. Consequently, in 2021, the AI startup pivoted from targeting small businesses to corporations and enterprises, focusing its offerings on knowledge mining and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) domains.
The company’s AI-powered software now automates text and voice conversations across businesses, employees, clients, and user-facing government services. This multilingual functionality is available on platforms such as call centers, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, and websites. DXwand secured additional investments between 2021 and 2022 to scale this solution in the MENA region, including a $1 million pre-Series A fund from the Dubai Future District Fund and a $1.3 million seed extension from SOSV and other investors.
Presently, DXwand claims to be profitable and has supported over 200 clients in expanding their businesses. The chatbot serves more than 40 clients throughout the MENA region, spanning various sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce, fintech, telecom, government, and legal.
According to its website, the AI startup facilitates over five million monthly conversations and charges a yearly subscription ranging from $50,000 to $400,000. The CEO disclosed that DXwand achieved more than $5 million in annual recurring revenues in 2023, reflecting the company’s 2x year-over-year growth.
Source: Techpoint