Saudi-India tech ties grow with the Anomapro acquisition

Published: 2026-06-09T09:28:00.000Z

The flow of technology deals between India and the Gulf keeps gathering pace. Watad Group, a Saudi cybersecurity and AI company, has acquired the Indian AI startup Anomapro, pairing a Gulf buyer with a team that builds the fraud detection and digital trust tools emerging markets increasingly need.

The flow of technology deals between India and the Gulf keeps gathering pace, and the latest one runs in a direction worth noting. Watad Group, a Saudi technology company focused on cybersecurity and AI, has acquired the Indian artificial intelligence startup Anomapro. The deal, which closed in early june, pairs a Gulf based buyer hunting for advanced capabilities with an Indian team that builds exactly the kind of fraud detection and digital trust tools that financial systems across emerging markets increasingly need. To understand why this fits, it helps to know what each side brings. Watad positions itself as a builder of integrated technology solutions across Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf, spanning operational technology cybersecurity, smart infrastructure and AI services powered by high performance computing. Anomapro, founded in 2022 by Kartik Hegde, Akshay Shridhar and Chinmay Hegde, works at the intersection of AI and fintech, developing tools aimed at problems like identity fraud, synthetic identities and AI generated document manipulation. Those threats have grown sharper as more financial activity moves online, and they sit right alongside the broader challenge of bringing millions of unbanked people into the formal system. That dual purpose is the heart of the rationale. The two companies frame the combination as a way to tackle financial inclusion and digital trust at the same time, expanding access to financial services while making them harder to defraud. As emerging economies push deeper into digital finance, the demand for systems that are both open and secure only grows, and an acquisition like this is a bet that whoever can deliver both will be well placed. By folding Anomapro's fraud intelligence and AI know how into its own platform, Watad gains technology it can deploy across the Saudi and Gulf markets it already serves. The structure of the deal also reflects a familiar pattern in cross border technology M&A. Anomapro is a young company that had not raised significant outside funding, which makes it the kind of focused, capability rich target a larger strategic buyer can absorb to acquire talent and intellectual property rather than scale. For the founders, joining a Gulf group offers a route into well capitalised markets that a small Indian startup might struggle to reach on its own. The regional context gives the move its real significance. Saudi Arabia and the broader Gulf are pouring resources into AI and cybersecurity under national transformation plans, while India has become a deep well of technical talent and AI startups. The corridor between the two has been thickening, with capital, partnerships and now acquisitions flowing across it. A Saudi company buying an Indian AI firm to strengthen financial security captures that dynamic neatly, and points to a future where Gulf ambition and Indian engineering increasingly meet in the same deals.