- The round saw participation from Athla Investment, Unity Invest Partners, and a group of angel investors. Rime’s platform currently powers more than 6,000 cameras across 2,000 operational sites throughout Saudi Arabia.
Saudi-based Rime, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence solutions for operational environments, has announced the successful closing of a Seed funding round worth more than $2 million, led by Seedra Ventures, with participation from Athla Investment, Unity Invest Partners, and a group of angel investors.
The funding will support the company’s expansion plans and accelerate the development of its AI platform.
The investment follows Rime’s earlier Pre-Seed round, which was also led by Seedra Ventures, reflecting the firm’s continued confidence in the startup and its founding team.
Today, more than 6,000 cameras are connected to Rime’s AI agents across over 2,000 operational locations serving major retail and service businesses across the Gulf region, positioning the company among the fastest-growing edge AI platforms in the Middle East.
Rime offers an integrated platform that enables enterprises to build and deploy Agentic AI systems operating directly within physical environments such as retail stores, branches, and service centers.
By processing data and making decisions locally at the edge, the platform eliminates the need to send information to remote data centers, enabling real-time responses.
The platform leverages Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) technologies, connecting AI agents directly to cameras and sensors deployed at customer sites
. By combining visual data with sensor inputs, the system delivers real-time operational insights and automated responses, helping organizations improve operational efficiency, ensure compliance with standard operating procedures, and reduce operational losses.
Mohammed Almarshidi, Co-Founder of Rime, said:
“We are entering a new era of Physical AI, where intelligent systems move beyond screens to interact with and make decisions directly within real-world operational environments”.
He added:
” We believe that processing data on-site through edge computing will become the foundation for deploying field AI agents, thanks to its faster processing, seamless integration with existing systems, and immediate event response.
He said:
” Our goal is to provide a secure, user-friendly platform where we manage deployment and operations end-to-end, allowing customers to benefit from highly reliable AI capabilities without technical complexity.”
Abdullah AlMunif, Co-Founder of Seedra Ventures, commented:
“Our investment in Rime reflects Sidra’s Venture Studio model,We have supported the company since its earliest stages, working closely with the founding team to develop the product and bring it to market”.
He added:
” As AI foundation models become increasingly accessible and their capabilities converge, competitive advantage is no longer determined by the models themselves, but by the ability to deliver intelligent decision-making directly to operational environments in real time”.
He said:
” Organizations across the region already possess extensive camera and sensor infrastructure that has historically served only documentation purposes”.
He added:
“Transforming these assets into an intelligent operational layer represents one of the sector’s greatest opportunities, and Rime is successfully leading this transformation, as demonstrated by its rapid expansion to more than 2,000 operational sites.”
Rime will use the new capital to strengthen its presence in the Saudi market, accelerate platform development, and help enterprises build secure, scalable, and easy-to-use AI applications.
The company aims to accelerate AI adoption across day-to-day business operations while supporting the objectives of Saudi Arabia’s National Strategy for Data and AI (NSDAI) and Vision 2030.
About Rime
Founded in Riyadh in 2024 by Mohammed Almarshidi and Aref AlOtaibi, Rime is a Saudi AI startup focused on Edge AI solutions for operational environments.
The company enables organizations to deploy AI agents directly at physical sites through edge computing and AIoT technologies.
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