Saudi Aramco’s $500 million venture capital arm, Wa’ed Ventures, has announced a strategic investment in California-based Resemble AI, a security firm focused on real-time multimodal deepfake detection. The backing follows Resemble AI’s $13 million strategic round closed last December, which drew capital from Google’s AI Future Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Javelin, and Ubiquity.
Quick Facts
- Wa’ed Ventures backs Resemble AI’s deepfake detection platform.
- Deepfake incidents in Saudi Arabia surged 600% last year.
- Resemble AI enables secure on-premise deployment for GCC organizations.
Combating the Surge in AI Fraud Across Saudi Arabia
The capital injection arrives as global markets face an aggressive spike in AI-generated fraud. Global deepfake scams caused more than $25 billion in losses in 2024, with projections estimating damages will hit $40 billion by 2027.
In the Middle East, the threat has escalated rapidly. Zohaib Ahmed, CEO and Co-Founder of Resemble AI, noted that deepfake incidents in Saudi Arabia alone increased by 600% over the past year.
“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,” Ahmed said. “Wa’ed understands this urgency, and their backing accelerates our ability to bring that protection to the region.”
Aligning with GCC Data Sovereignty Standards
A critical factor driving the deployment of AI security tools in the region is strict data compliance. Resemble AI allows for both cloud and on-premise deployment, ensuring that government, defense, and highly regulated corporate entities can analyze voice and audio without routing sensitive data to external servers.
This localized infrastructure aligns with Saudi Arabia’s proactive regulatory moves, including the Anti-Cybercrime Law, designed to penalize the distribution of misinformation that threatens national security or public peace.
Anas Algahtani, CEO of Wa’ed Ventures, emphasized the strategic fit of the investment for the domestic market.
“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,” Algahtani noted. “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.”
About Resemble AI
Resemble AI is an artificial intelligence security company specializing in voice generation, multimodal verification, and deepfake detection. The platform provides real-time solutions to identify synthetic audio and media manipulation, offering cloud and on-premise environments for secure deployment within highly regulated industries.
About Wa’ed Ventures
Wa’ed Ventures is a $500 million institutional venture capital firm wholly owned by Saudi Aramco. Established in 2013 in Dhahran, the fund promotes economic diversification in Saudi Arabia by backing high-growth tech startups. Wa’ed manages a portfolio of over 90 companies, offering end-to-end support from capital injection to partner resource access.
Source: Zawya
