Widebot’s success story: from incubation at the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center

The global chatbot market is estimated to have reached USD 7.76 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to USD 27.29 billion by 2030. Among the early believers in this sector were a group of Egyptian entrepreneurs who launched WideBot in 2017. The company embarked on its journey from the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) before expanding across the region in a growth story marked by multiple milestones.

 How It All Started

The idea began when co-founder Mohamed Mostafa, who was working as a freelance programmer at the time, was asked by a client to build a chatbot—an uncommon request back then. He discussed the opportunity with co-founder Mohamed Nabil, and together they saw the potential of becoming the first company in Egypt and the Middle East to develop Arabic-language chatbots. They believed the idea could generate strong commercial returns.

The first version of WideBot was launched in June 2017. The team applied to TIEC under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and received a grant of EGP 120,000, in addition to incubation services and a workspace. Their mission was to build an Arabic AI-powered chatbot engine capable of supporting multiple dialects, including Egyptian, Saudi, Emirati, Lebanese, and Jordanian, among others.

Early Challenges

At the time, the concepts of chatbots and artificial intelligence were not widely understood. Before COVID-19, the team struggled to close sales deals. But the pandemic changed the landscape dramatically. As companies shifted to online operations, demand for chatbots and AI solutions surged, fueling strong interest in WideBot’s product.

Attracting Investors

WideBot secured its first investment in 2018, valued at USD 100,000. As the company gained traction, it later raised USD 1.6 million from Egyptian and Saudi investors, expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In February of this year, WideBot announced raising USD 3 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Kheilaan Capital (backed by Wafra II) and Enza Capital, with participation from DisrupTech Ventures, Den VC, and SparkLabs Ventures.

The company’s appeal to investors stems from several strengths: its early leadership in the chatbot space, its ability to sell in multiple markets, and its strong AI performance. WideBot serves clients across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and more, and offers AI accuracy in Arabic dialects that surpasses Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon—especially in dialect-specific understanding.

Launching an Arabic AI Voice Agent

In October, WideBot announced the launch of WhatsApp Business calling through its intelligent AI voice agent, WideBot AI Voice Agent, becoming the first Arab company in the Middle East to officially provide this technology to regional clients.

This step marks a major shift in institutional communication, enabling governments and large enterprises to interact with citizens and customers directly via WhatsApp calls—the region’s most widely used communication channel—using a smart voice agent capable of understanding and responding in real time across Arabic dialects.

By enabling WhatsApp voice calls through AI, organizations can now deliver secure and fully integrated voice services without traditional call-center infrastructure, while complying with local data protection regulations.

The solution also offers unprecedented capabilities to enterprises in banking, insurance, telecommunications, and healthcare, allowing them to automate customer calls on a platform used by over a billion people globally.

Through WideBot’s voice agent, institutions can now automate WhatsApp phone conversations for appointment booking, inquiries, order management, and even government transactions—instantly, accurately, and in full compliance with local laws.

Advanced Speech Models

WideBot’s AI Voice Agent relies on STT (Speech-to-Text) and TTS (Text-to-Speech) models to analyze audio, understand dialects, and respond efficiently—including Saudi, Egyptian, and Emirati dialects. These models are part of WideBot’s AQL system, the most powerful and accurate Arabic language understanding model, covering more than 25 dialects.

The agent also uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), enabling it to answer complex queries based solely on an institution’s internal databases and trusted sources—greatly improving accuracy and reducing common AI errors.

About AQL GenAI, WideBot’s Arabic LLM

AQL is WideBot’s proprietary large language model (LLM), built entirely for Arabic and designed specifically for enterprises and governments across the Middle East.

The model was developd through years of research in Arabic linguistics, deep learning, and NLP. It is now the most accurate model in understanding Arabic and its dialects, supporting more than 25 dialects across the Gulf, Levant, North Africa, Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen.

AQL combines deep contextual language understanding with RAG technology, allowing it to deliver precise answers derived from verified institutional data rather than predictions or general assumptions.

Local Hosting & Enterprise-Grade Security

WideBot provides its AI voice agent for WhatsApp through local on-premise hosting, ensuring full compliance with regional data protection laws, alongside complete call encryption and infrastructure security. This gives organizations total control over their data while maintaining strong performance and experience quality.

WideBot also provides the first Arabic AI model hosted on local cloud servers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.