Egyptian founders Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed built the voice AI startup PlayAI to improve access to regional content. The company developed advanced text-to-speech tools and raised $21 million in 2024. Meta acquired the startup on July 11, 2025, to help improve natural-sounding AI voices across its various platforms.
Synopsis
Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed are the founders of PlayAI. Both of them Egyptian entrepreneurs who had previously worked at Dubai-based classifieds platform Dubizzle. The idea for starting the company came when they got frustrated by limited access to regional content in audio formats. The aim was to make written content more available through speech technology.
Two Egyptian founders built PlayAI as they faced a problem with access to regional content and then grew their it into a voice technology company. The startup was later acquired by Meta.
Who are the founders?
Mahmoud Felfel and Hammad Syed are the founders of PlayAI. Both of them Egyptian entrepreneurs who had previously worked at Dubai-based classifieds platform Dubizzle.
The idea for starting the company came when they got frustrated by limited access to regional content in audio formats. The aim was to make written content more available through speech technology.
In 2016, they developed a Chrome extension that could read Medium articles aloud and used text-to-speech technology.
PlayAI develops voice AI technology that can turn text into natural-sounding speech. It can also generate voices and support real-time conversations between people and AI systems.
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They also developed multilingual text-to-speech models, voice-cloning tools, APIs and a platform for building AI voice agents.
Its technology was used for applications such as customer support, sales conversations and interactive voice response systems.
The company built voice infrastructure the other companies could integrate into their products.
Who funded the startup?
It attracted investment from capital firms including 500 Global and Kindred Ventures. The company raised $21 million in seed funding in 2024, reported Disrupt Africa.
Meta's acquisition
Meta's acquisition reportedly took place in July 2025. According to Blomberg, on July 11 the deal had been completed.
PlayAI reportedly complemented Meta's plans for natural-sounding AI voices and easier voice creation across Meta AI, AI characters, wearables and audio content creation.
Meanwhile, 500 Global reportedly said that the entire PlayAI team was expected to join Meta's Superintelligence Labs.
Meta, however, did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition.
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