Egyptian-Born Voice AI Startup PlayAI Acquired By Tech Titan, Meta

Voice intelligence startup PlayAI, founded in Egypt, has been acquired by Meta (formerly Facebook) to join its Superintelligence Labs. The deal marks a major exit for early investor 500 Global, which backed the startup in 2022.

PlayAI was co-founded by Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed to solve regional voice tech challenges before expanding globally. The startup developed real-time generative voice AI to transform human-machine interactions.

“This shows how local problems inspire global solutions,” said Regina Zurutuza, Partner at 500 Global, praising the founders’ ambition.