Wa’ed Ventures Invests in Resemble AI in a $13M Strategic Round to Advance Deepfake Detection Technologies
Wa’ed Ventures, the $500 million venture capital fund under Saudi Aramco, announced a strategic investment in Resemble AI, a California-based security company specializing in AI voice generation and real-time multimodal deepfake detection.
The startup previously closed a $13 million strategic funding round in December, backed by prominent investors including Google’s AI Future Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Javelin, and Ubiquity.
The investment comes at a time of rapidly rising AI-generated fraud worldwide. Saudi Arabia has been proactively addressing these risks through strong regulatory frameworks, including the Anti-Cybercrime Law, which criminalizes the spread of fake news or misinformation that threatens public peace, security, or national interests.
According to global estimates, deepfake-related scams caused more than $25 billion in losses in 2024, while damages are projected to reach $40 billion globally by 2027.
The investment will support Resemble AI’s expansion into the Middle East, enabling organizations across Saudi Arabia to deploy secure, real-time AI detection technologies aligned 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.
“Organizations 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 supports both cloud and on-premise deployment, allowing government, defense, and regulated organizations to analyze voice and audio content without sending sensitive data to external servers, a critical requirement across the region.
