Saudi Arabia-Based Velents Raises US$1.5 Million To Launch Agent.sa

Saudi Arabia-based human resources technology (HRtech) startup Velents.ai has raised US$1.5 million from angel investors, including senior executives from Google, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and other global firms, to support the launch of Agent.sa, its fully Arabic-speaking artificial intelligence (AI) employee for businesses across the Middle East.

Founded by entrepreneurs Mohamed Gaber and Abdulaziz Al-Muhaideb in KSA in 2020, Velents began as a recruitment automation platform before relaunching in 2023 as a provider of AI-driven digital solutions. Today, it serves clients across Egypt and Saudi Arabia, including government ministries, private companies, and universities.  

The company’s newly launched product, Agent.sa, is designed to function as a fully Arabic-speaking AI employee that can integrate into existing business operations. The platform allows companies to create and train custom AI team members in under five minutes—handling tasks such as answering phone calls, managing WhatsApp conversations, tracking customer requests, executing operational duties, and analyzing data.

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, Gaber, CEO of Velents, stressed that Agent.sa has not been designed to replace human employees, but instead to amplify their output. “Agent.sa takes on the repetitive, time-consuming parts of communication, so human teams can focus on what truly requires creativity, empathy, and strategy,” he said. “In every organization we’ve worked with, Agent.sa has acted more like a new team member—one that never sleeps, never misses a message, and scales instantly when needed. The future of work isn’t ‘AI instead of humans,’ it’s humans and AI working side by side to achieve more.”   

With the ability to handle large volumes of interactions in Arabic and its regional dialects, Velents aims to serve industries such as banking, telecom, logistics, and healthcare, offering continuous, human-like customer engagement at scale. According to Gaber, the company’s journey to perfect Agent.sa went far beyond technical engineering. “Arabic is one language but many worlds,” he said. “Capturing dialectal variation—from Saudi and Emirati to Egyptian and Levantine—was one of the hardest parts. Words, tone, and even intent can shift dramatically across countries and contexts. Another challenge was cultural understanding: knowing when a word is formal versus friendly, or how customer service tone differs in Riyadh compared to Cairo. We spent months refining emotion detection, politeness strategies, and idiomatic understanding to make Agent.sa sound naturally human—not translated.” 

Beyond its collaborative role, Agent.sa brings broad functionality to business operations. Its voice and text capabilities span WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram, supporting use cases such as data analysis, order tracking, and system integration. The platform also connects with more than 20 systems, from payment gateways to customer relationship management tools, while complying with local data protection regulations by storing all information within national borders in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt. 

While the latest funding round will fuel the expansion of Velents’ AI infrastructure and accelerate the rollout of Agent.sa across new markets, the company is also preparing for a larger funding round expected to close in early 2026. Looking ahead, Gaber believes that the next phase of AI in the region will depend on a deeper cultural connection. “AI in our region must understand the way people actually speak, think, and make decisions—not just process their words,” he said. “Founders should invest early in data quality, ethical frameworks, and cultural adaptation, because the region doesn’t just need more AI tools—it needs AI that feels local, trusted, and human.” 

Pictured in the lead image is Velents co-founder and CEO Mohamed Gaber. Image courtesy Velents.ai.