Ex-e& chief Hatem Dowidar backs Egypt's Tactful AI in Pre-Series A extension
What's the deal? Hatem DowidarDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, former group chief executive officer of UAE telecom group e&, has joined Egyptian startup Tactful AIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → as an investor through an extension of its Pre-Series A round. Terms were not disclosed.
The context: The investment builds on the $1 million Pre-Series A that Tactful AI closed in February, co-led by Foras AIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and M Empire AngelsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company, founded in 2016, has raised $1.2 million across three disclosed rounds.
What's the company building? Tactful AI makes agentic AI infrastructure for customer experience, letting enterprises build and change end-to-end support workflows in-house with human sign-off at each step. Its clients include Elaraby Group, Raneen, and Erada Finance.
The numbers: Since January 2025, Tactful AI reports an 11.7x increase in annual recurring revenue and a 32x rise in monthly customer conversations processed through its platform. The figures are company-reported.
Why Dowidar matters: Dowidar led e& from 2020 to March 2026 and previously spent 16 years at Vodafone, including a stint as chief executive officer of Vodafone EgyptDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. "Very few leaders share his depth of understanding and strategic clarity regarding what large enterprises require before trusting new, customer-facing technologies," said co-founder and CEO Mohamed Elmasry.
Why now? The company is preparing to roll out its next generation of agentic AI technology and aims to raise a Series A round in 2027. Dowidar's undisclosed stake adds a prominent telecom name but no measurable new financing scale.
The signal: The regional CX-AI market is drawing materially larger cheques — Saudi platform LucidyaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → raised $30 million in Series B funding in 2025. Against that backdrop, Dowidar's participation reads as a credibility boost for an early-stage competitor, not proof that Tactful has secured a major round or a market lead.
Read more: fintechgate.net
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