About Tawasel AI
We built the receptionist we wished existed
Tawasel started in a dental clinic waiting room in Tunis, where the receptionist was answering the same WhatsApp questions on repeat. There had to be a better way.
Local businesses in North Africa run on WhatsApp. Customers do not email, they do not call — they message. And they expect an answer within minutes, whether it is 9 a.m. or 11 p.m.
The clinic owner we worked with was a dentist. She was also her own receptionist, booking coordinator, and FAQ desk — all through a single WhatsApp account on her personal phone. She was losing appointments not because she lacked the capacity to serve them, but because she could not answer fast enough.
Generic chatbot builders were not the answer. They required decision trees, did not understand Arabic, and completely fell apart when a customer wrote in derja. So we built something different: an AI trained on the actual language of Tunisian commerce, connected directly to WhatsApp Business, and controlled entirely from a clean dashboard.
Tawasel is that product. It handles the repetitive conversations so your team can focus on the ones that actually need a human. It speaks your customers' language — literally. And it gives every business the kind of instant, professional presence that used to require a full-time receptionist.
What we believe
Six convictions that drive every product decision we make.
Conversations first
Good business starts with a good reply. We obsess over what happens in the first message — the tone, the speed, the accuracy — because that is what customers remember.
Built for here
Not a translation from Silicon Valley. Tawasel was designed for the rhythms of the Maghreb: Tunisian derja, French business vocabulary, Arabic script, and the WhatsApp-first culture of local commerce.
Privacy by design
Customer messages are sensitive. We keep every organization's data strictly isolated, never train our models on your conversations, and build audit trails into every sensitive action.
Honest on limits
AI should know when to step aside. Tawasel escalates to your team when a conversation needs a human — and hands over everything the agent needs to pick up without the customer repeating a word.
Practical over flashy
We skip the AI buzzwords and focus on the number that matters: how many more customers did your business serve this week? Every feature ships with a measurable outcome in mind.
Default to shipping
Local businesses move fast and do not have time for a six-month onboarding. We make sure you can connect WhatsApp, add your services, and have AI replying to customers — all inside an hour.
How we got here
2023
Founded in Tunis
Started with a dental clinic pilot: AI answered 83% of inquiries in the first week.
Early 2024
First 50 businesses
Clinics, restaurants, and retail shops across Tunis, Sfax, and Sousse.
Mid 2024
Tunisian derja support
Launched the first AI engine to understand and reply in natural Tunisian dialect.
Late 2024
Series A — $2.4M
Backed by MENA-focused investors to expand to Morocco and Algeria.
2025
600+ businesses
Over 4 million AI-handled messages. Average response time: 1.2 seconds.
2026
Next chapter
Order tracking, deeper CRM integrations, and a mobile app for on-the-go teams.
The team
We are a small team that has used every product we have ever shipped. When something breaks, we hear about it first.
Amine Khelifi
Co-Founder & CEO
Former product lead at a Tunis-based fintech. Spent years watching small businesses lose customers because they could not respond fast enough.
Sarra Belhadj
Co-Founder & CTO
ML engineer who built multilingual NLP pipelines before turning her focus to making AI practical for everyday commerce in North Africa.
Mehdi Gharbi
Head of Product
Spent three years doing customer support at his family restaurant. Saw firsthand how a single unanswered WhatsApp could cost a booking.
Lina Oueslati
Head of Customer Success
Onboarded and coached the first 200 businesses on Tawasel. Fluent in what works — and what does not — across clinics, restaurants, and retail.
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