Saudi’s PIF, stc Group sign agreement to establish new IoT company

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and stc Group (stc) have announced the signing of a joint venture (JV) agreement to establish a new company, specialising in the Internet of Things (IoT).

This is subject to satisfying the conditions in the JV agreement and obtaining approvals from authorities. The new company’s ownership will be 50 per cent PIF and 50 per cent stc and will be headquartered in Riyadh.

The JV agreement is part of PIF’s and stc’s efforts to drive the rapid growth of IoT across Saudi Arabia. The new company will leverage expertise and technology of existing IoT partners, including stc.

It will also contribute toward boosting the IoT adoption by being a technology agnostic service provider with offerings in the smart industrial manufacturing sector, smart logistics transportation sector, and smart cities, a statement said. Additionally, the company will also help create an ecosystem by providing consulting, implementation and training support as well as facilitating funding models to support businesses in their adoption of IoT.

Telecom, Media & Technology is a strategic sector under the #PIFstrategy.#PIF’s joint venture agreement with @stc to establish a new IoT company is an important step toward diversifying the economy by enabling sectors, localizing knowledge, and developing the digital ecosystem.

— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) April 3, 2022

Yazeed AlHumied, deputy governor, and head of MENA Investment at PIF, said, “Partnering with stc as one of the national champions in the information communication technology sector (ICT) will help unlock this promising sector and contribute to PIF’s efforts to localise cutting-edge technology and knowledge in Saudi Arabia and further develop a digital economy, in line with Vision 2030 objectives.

“The company will create significant business opportunities, high quality jobs, and improve productivity and efficiency for entities adopting IoT solutions in their operations.”

“Internet of things has been identified in stc’s “DARE 2.0″ strategy among the five strategic areas of investment. It is at our core and aligns with Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation initiatives, supported by PIF,” added Olayan Al Wetaid, CEO of stc Group.

According to local market studies, there is vast growth in the size of the kingdom’s IoT market to potentially reach SAR10.8bn by 2025 with an annual growth rate of 12.8 per cent.

The company will aim to equip the targeted sector to realise the fourth industrial revolution through the enablement of autonomous technologies, artificial intelligence, digital twin, sensors and other domain-specific advanced technologies, the statement added.

Meanwhile, stc has invested in building its 5G and NB-IoT connectivity infrastructure to support enablement of IoT with more than 15,000 communication towers and a coverage rate of more than 85 per cent of urban areas. This allows the possibility of connecting nearly 500 million IoT devices in the kingdom.