Sawt raises $1 million to transform voice-based customer service
Founded in 2024 by Abdulmalik Al-Saeed, Sawt offers an AI-powered voice platform that allows businesses to handle bookings, sales, and support through natural-sounding, always-on AI agents, with operations spanning Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt.
The investment will help Sawt scale its technical infrastructure, expand its team, and enhance its proprietary models.
Press release:
Sawt, the Saudi-based startup pioneering AI voice call systems, announced the closing of its $1 million (SAR 3.75 million) pre-seed round, led by T2 and STV. The funding will accelerate the development of Arabic-native voice AI models and position Sawt to reimagine the customer support experience across the region.
The idea behind Sawt was born out of a repeated and frustrating reality in customer support: long wait times, overwhelmed agents, and repetitive questions. Calls that drain time and resources without adding value - driving up costs and making scale even harder.
So the team at Sawt asked a bold question: What if we could reinvent the call itself? The result is an end-to-end voice call platform that enables businesses to handle customer support, bookings, and sales through AI agents that sound natural, respond intelligently, and operate 24/7 - without interruption.
In just a few months, Sawt successfully built the region's most advanced Arabic voice AI models - entirely developed in Saudi Arabia. This local-first approach enables Sawt to offer enterprise-grade privacy and data security. Within only two months of launch, the platform has already served dozens of businesses and powered hundreds of thousands of voice interactions. Now, Sawt is gearing up to scale its impact - delivering faster, smarter, and more efficient customer experiences.
Abdulkarim Aljarba, CEO of T2, commented:
'Sawt offers an AI voice calling platform, enabling us to expand in this market and help our clients leverage its advanced capabilities. This investment aligns with our expansion strategy to deliver cutting-edge technology solutions and empower our partners with more integrated offerings.'
Ahmad Al Naimi, General Partner at STV, added:
'Sawt exemplifies a new wave of Saudi AI-native ventures. With a strong tech edge and commercial momentum, they're poised to lead the $800M-$1.2B GCC AI call centre automation market. We're proud to back them as the first investment from the STV AI Fund.'
Abdulmalik Al-Saeed, Co-founder and CEO of Sawt, said:
'Today, Saudi Arabia is undergoing a massive AI-driven transformation - with 66 of Vision 2030's 96 goals tied to data and AI. At Sawt, we're proud to contribute to this movement by building Arabic voice technology from the ground up, right here in the Kingdom. We're equally proud to welcome STV and T2 as strategic partners on this journey. STV is the region's first AI-focused VC fund and the largest tech fund in the Middle East. Our exclusive partnership with T2, a leading infrastructure and tech provider, gives us access to a broad customer base and unlocks new growth opportunities. These strategic alliances give us the strength to redefine customer service in the region.'
Sawt will use the funding to grow its team, scale its technical infrastructure, and further develop its proprietary models - enabling the platform to handle millions of voice interactions smoothly and reliably. With a firm belief that AI will be the cornerstone of customer service in the coming years, this round marks the first step in a larger journey - one where Sawt reimagines what customer service can look like in the region.
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