Egyptian artificial intelligence startup Sinai.ai has raised $1.45 million in a pre-seed funding round to develop a platform that converts traditional books into interactive digital formats, in a deal led by KAUST Innovation Ventures and DisrupTech Ventures.
Maza Ventures, YOUXEL Ventures and a group of angel investors also participated in the round. The company was founded in 2024 by Ahmed Kamel and a team of co-founders.
Sinai.ai’s core product, aiBook, transforms traditional books into digital formats that support real-time interaction, personalized learning and multimodal consumption. Users can converse with the text, generate automated summaries and switch between reading and audio modes.
The company sources licensed content directly from publishers, allowing users to interact with full-text books while remaining compliant with copyright rules — an approach designed to address one of the most significant friction points limiting AI adoption in media. By working directly with rights holders, the company aims to align incentives across the value chain, allowing publishers to retain control while accessing new revenue streams.
Sinai.ai plans to use the funding for technology development, AI infrastructure, licensing agreements and user acquisition as it expands its content library.
The investment reflects a broader shift in how AI is being applied to content industries. The global book market, valued at more than $150 billion, has seen limited transformation in format despite the rise of digital distribution. Sinai.ai is targeting that gap by adding a layer of interaction on top of existing content, shifting reading from a static experience to dynamic engagement.
For users, features such as real-time dialogue with text, personalized study tools and multimodal access mirror expectations shaped by other digital platforms. For investors, the model combines elements of software, content licensing and subscription economics, offering potential recurring revenue. Key challenges include securing large-scale publishing partnerships, maintaining content quality and competing with established platforms already operating in digital reading and education.
