CNTXT AI raises USD 60 mn from BlueFive Capital, Abu Dhabi’s AI71

Arabic AI startup Cntxt AI raised USD 60 mn in a Series A round co-led by private equity firm BlueFive Capital and AI71, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council, according to a press release. The round is one of the larger early-stage raises in a Gulf AI startup this year, and will allow the startup to develop its products and expand into new markets.

The investors are heavyweights: AI71 is Abu Dhabi's applied AI company focused on sovereign, domain-specialized AI. BlueFive Capital, meanwhile, is quickly becoming the Gulf’s most active investor — leading two major founding rounds this month, including CNTXT AI’s and a USD 250 mn funding round for CargoX, while acquiring stakes in several mobility firms over the past couple of months.

PLUS- AI71 and CNTXT AI’s Mohammad Abu Sheikh are no strangers: Abu Sheikh previously founded LocAI, which built applications on top of the large language models, and which was later acquired by AI71.

CNTXT AI's core product is a data sovereignty pitch. The company works with Oracle, Nvidia, and Amazon Web Services, and has supported several major global AI developers on large language model initiatives. Its flagship product, Munsit, billed as the most accurate Arabic voice AI, has processed over 1 mn minutes of speech and serves more than 250 enterprises and 150k users.