Tarjama, an Arabic language technology company based in the UAE, has secured US$15 million in a series A funding round.

The investment was led by MENA’s leading VC firm, Global Ventures, with other international investors such as Wamda Capital, TA Ventures, Phaze Capital, Golden Gate Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst.

The funding will be used to scale Arabic.AI, the company’s proprietary AI ecosystem for Arabic-speaking markets. Tarjama also plans to expand its engineering team, develop infrastructure, and establish an AI Academy to train enterprise and government leaders in the region.

Founded in 2009 by Nour Al Hassan, Tarjama provides language technology solutions in over 50 languages and 22 Arabic dialects. The company recently launched Pronoia V2, a large language model designed for enterprise applications that focuses on Arabic.

Tarjama operates in over 30 markets globally and serves more than 700 clients. It addresses the specific needs of Arabic-speaking businesses.

🔗 Source: Tarjama

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Arabic’s linguistic heritage positions it uniquely in the AI revolution

The term “algorithm” itself traces back to 9th-century Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, reflecting the historical contributions of the region to mathematical and scientific advancements1.

Despite this heritage, Arabic has been underserved by global AI models, creating a significant gap in the market that Tarjama’s Pronoia model aims to address by outperforming global competitors like GPT-4o on Arabic language tasks2.

With 400 million Arabic speakers across MENA’s rapidly digitizing $3 trillion economy, the potential for specialized Arabic AI extends far beyond translation into enterprise applications across multiple sectors3.

Tarjama’s focus on both linguistic and cultural understanding, evidenced by their work with 22 Arabic dialects and processing of over 2 billion words, addresses a critical market need that generic global AI models have historically neglected4.

The company’s profitable 20% CAGR over three years demonstrates that building technology specifically for Arabic-speaking markets represents not just a cultural need but a significant business opportunity.

2️⃣ Arabic AI aligns with strategic economic diversification in the Gulf

Tarjama’s US$15 million funding fits within broader regional investment trends, where AI is seen as a critical component of economic diversification, with UAE aiming for AI to generate 20% of non-oil GDP by 20315.

The PwC report projects AI could contribute up to $320 billion to the Middle East economy by 2030, with UAE experiencing the largest relative impact at 14% of GDP and Saudi Arabia gaining over $135 billion in absolute terms3.