Saudi Arabian artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Intelmatix has secured funding led by the kingdom’s technology venture capital fund STV and strategic investor Sultan Holdings.

Intelmatix, founded this year in Massachusetts, USA, by MIT graduates Anas Alfaris and Ahmad Alabdulkareem, focuses on location intelligence.

The technology helps governments to address planning and management challenges relating to emergency services and utility requirements. In the private sector, it can improve productivity, growth and sustainability by providing intelligence for business decisions.

Alfaris, co-founder and CEO of Intelmatix, said: “Artificial Intelligence offers opportunities worth billions. In the Saudi Arabian market alone, location Intelligence opportunities exceed SAR 2 billion ($533 million) annually, and globally, the value is more than SAR 100 billion ($26.7 billion) each year.”

“Our strategy crystallised through years of collaboration between the R&D sector and the business sector. Then the Saudi Vision 2030 provided the regulatory and technical enablers to support the launch of Intelmatix by providing the ideal innovation environment,” he added.

Abdulrahman Tarabzouni, STV’s founder and CEO said: “We are excited to partner with Intelmatix on its journey towards harnessing deep-tech for advancing the horizons of AI and reaching new frontiers of its application.

“The Intelmatix team is made of the brightest minds in the region, and they have the ability and vision to make the company a major global AI player.”

The amount of funding to has not been disclosed. STV is the MENA region’s largest venture capital fund and Sultan Holdings is chaired by Saudi’s Prince Naif bin Sultan bin Muhammed bin Saud Al Kabeer.

(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)

Imogen.lillywhite@refinitiv.com

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© ZAWYA 2021