- Wa’ed Ventures, the $500 million VC arm of Saudi Aramco, has made a strategic investment in US-based Resemble AI, a company specialising in AI voice generation and real-time deepfake detection.
- Resemble AI previously raised a $13 million strategic round backed by investors including Google’s AI Future Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Javelin, and Ubiquity.
- The investment will support Resemble AI’s expansion into Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East, enabling organisations to deploy real-time AI verification and deepfake detection technologies aligned with regional data sovereignty and security requirements.
Press release:
Wa’ed Ventures, the $500 million venture capital fund under Saudi Aramco, today announced a strategic investment in Resemble AI, a leading security company based out of California specialising in AI voice generation and real-time multimodal deepfake detection. The startup closed a $13 million strategic round last December backed by investors including Google’s AI Future Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Javelin, and Ubiquity.
The investment comes amid a sharp rise in AI-generated fraud globally. Saudi Arabia is proactively moving swiftly to address these risks through strong regulatory frameworks, including the Anti-Cybercrime Law, which criminalises the spread of fake news or misinformation that threatens public peace, security, or national interest. At the same time, global deepfake-related scams caused more than $25 billion in losses in 2024 while deepfake incidents are projected to cause $40 billion in damage globally by 2027.
Wa’ed Ventures’ investment supports Resemble AI’s expansion into the Middle East, enabling organisations across Saudi Arabia to deploy secure, real-time AI detection technologies that align with regional data sovereignty and security requirements. “At Wa’ed Ventures, our role goes beyond funding – we work closely with founders to help them scale technologies that can compete globally while being rooted in Saudi Arabia’s priorities. As the Kingdom strengthens AI governance, digital trust, and content authenticity regulations, solutions like Resemble AI’s deepfake detection and synthetic media safeguards directly support efforts to ensure secure, ethical AI adoption across public and private sectors.” mentioned Anas Algahtani, CEO of Wa’ed Ventures.
“The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-generated fraud – deepfake incidents in Saudi Arabia alone increased 600% last year,” said Zohaib Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Resemble AI. “Organisations across the Gulf need detection capabilities they can deploy on their own infrastructure, with the speed and accuracy to catch threats in real time. Wa’ed understands this urgency, and their backing accelerates our ability to bring that protection to the region.”
Resemble AI’s platform enables both cloud and on-premise deployment, allowing government, defence, and regulated organisations to analyse voice and audio content without sending sensitive data to external servers – a critical requirement across the region.