Empowering local talent and workforce development in Saudi Arabia

Beyond ONE Strengthens Digital and Financial Inclusion in Saudi Arabia, Advancing Vision 2030

• Expanding access to mobile and fintech solutions to empower communities in line with Vision 2030

• Helping residents and expatriates stay connected and access essential digital services across the Kingdom

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 Driving a more inclusive, connected, and cashless society across Saudi Arabia

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Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia December 16, 2025 – Beyond ONE, the digital services provider behind the Virgin Mobile and FRiENDi Mobile brands in the Kingdom, today affirms its commitment to enabling more inclusive digital participation across Saudi Arabia, in support of Vision 2030’s goals of a vibrant society and a thriving economy.

As Saudi Arabia accelerates its transition to a more diversified, digital first economy, connectivity and access to digital services have become foundational. Beyond ONE’s local expansion, strategic partnerships and consumer friendly  platforms help reduce barriers to financial and digital inclusion for users who may not have traditional banking relationships.

Driving Inclusion Through Connectivity and Digital Access

Beyond ONE’s products and services aim to deliver accessible digital ecosystems beyond standard mobile connectivity. For example:

• The company’s partnership with TIMWETECH enables almost 4 million prepaid mobile users in Saudi Arabia and Oman to subscribe to premium content and services directly via their mobile balance – a significant step in markets where credit card penetration remains  under 30 %. 

• The recent opening of Beyond ONE’s Riyadh office – bringing together Virgin Mobile KSA, FRiENDi Mobile and FRiENDi Pay under one roof – reflects a people first ethos, with 85 per cent Saudisation  and 35 per cent women in the workforce. 

These developments underscore the company’s role in enabling everyday users – including expatriate communities, prepaid mobile customers and underserved segments – to access digital services, manage their mobile usage and increasingly participate in digital financial ecosystems.

Alignment with Vision 2030

Saudi Vision 2030 sets out key targets around social transformation, digital innovation and financial accessibility. Through its work, Beyond ONE contributes to these strategic priorities by:

• Facilitating broader access to digital communication and services, thereby helping build a society that is digitally connected and inclusive

• Supporting the growth of digital economy infrastructure and mobile  first  financial solutions, aligning with the Kingdom’s drive to reduce reliance on cash and increase service access

• Empowering local talent and workforce development in Saudi Arabia via its Riyadh operations and localised employment strategy

Looking Ahead: The Next Phase of Empowerment

Beyond ONE is preparing to further its contribution to financial inclusion through upcoming services such as person-to-person transfers, debit cards and tailored offerings for youth, expatriates and small businesses. These moves reflect a shift from connectivity alone to a broader financial  services enablement model that supports everyday financial behaviour. Yaarob Al-Sayegh, CEO at Beyond ONE KSA stated “At Beyond ONE our purpose is not just to connect devices but to connect people, especially in contexts where digital and financial access have been limited. By expanding mobile first, prepaid  friendly platforms and empowering local talent in Saudi Arabia, we are helping to make the promise of Vision 2030 real for every resident. When people can pay, communicate, and explore without unseen barriers, they participate  fully in the modern economy. That matters.”

Gold Apple is bringing its most popular digital game to the Middle Eastern market. Beauty Elf, created in the spirit of classic virtual-pet mechanics, is now available on the retailer’s website and mobile app in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. This is the first example of deep gamification introduced by a major beauty retailer in the MENA region.

Gold Apple continues to develop its retailtainment concept, expanding its gamification ecosystem with the launch of Beauty Elf. The main character of the new online game is the Elf — a recognizable Gold Apple mascot featured for many years in the brand’s campaigns and pop-ups. Users take care of the Elf, customize its appearance and room, complete in-game tasks, communicate in shared channels, and receive both virtual and real rewards. Through an engaging and easy-to-play format, users explore new beauty products, brands and rituals, and receive recommendations from experts representing leading fragrance and cosmetics houses.

In the UAE, the game is available in three languages — Arabic, English and Russian. In Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Beauty Elf launches in Arabic and English. The rollout is accompanied by exclusive merchandise, including limited-edition T-shirts with locally inspired designs such as I Love UAE.

Beauty Elf was first launched in Russia in 2024, where it quickly grew into a large-scale digital project with a multimillion-strong audience. It later entered the Asian market, demonstrating consistently high engagement and a strong interest in gamified formats.

The game serves both marketing and educational purposes: mini-games help users better understand product properties, learn the steps of a proper beauty routine and build effective self-care habits. Over time, the game has formed its own community — users share their progress, react to each other’s updates, add friends and compete in leaderboards that refresh every season.

Despite associations with classic virtual toys, Beauty Elf is designed primarily for an adult audience. Data from the Russian pilot confirms this: in its first year, the game attracted over 4 million users, with more than 80% aged 20–35, 15% over 35, and only about 5% under 18. Experience in Europe and Asia shows that this format has become a familiar and enjoyable way for adults to unwind, spend a few minutes in the app and discover new products through interactive play.

The arrival of Beauty Elf in the Middle East marks the next step in the development of Gold Apple’s digital services. The game will continue to expand with regional events, new seasonal mechanics, themed rooms and special collections inspired by local holidays and traditions. The company plans to further strengthen its gamification direction, viewing it as an important engagement tool and a new way of building long-term relationships with customers.

Empowering enterprises with locally hosted, end-to-end Process Intelligence aligned with Vision 2030

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Dec 16, 2025: ARIS, the global leader in process intelligence software for over three decades, has announced the launch of ARIS On-Prem Process Mining in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The launch underscores the brand’s commitment to supporting Vision 2030 by equipping enterprises with AI-ready process intelligence through locally hosted technologies that strengthen resilience, scalability, and data-driven decision-making.

As organisations accelerate digital transformation and embrace advanced automation, ARIS On-Prem Process Mining provides the foundational process governance layer required to unlock the full potential of intelligent systems. The platform delivers strategic advantages through a comprehensive, locally hosted suite for end-to-end process intelligence and governance. Leveraging advanced process modelling, mining, and analytics, enterprises gain granular visibility into workflows, enabling precise standardisation and optimisation across complex environments. The platform’s robust process repository ensures data integrity and compliance with local residency regulations, critical for highly regulated sectors.

As the industry’s only platform enabling true closed-loop process excellence, ARIS On-Prem Process Mining unifies process mining, analysis, modelling, and governance within a single, secure environment, providing enterprises with complete control over their transformation and compliance programmes. 

Operating as an AI governance backbone, ARIS On-Prem Process Mining contextualises enterprise process data for intelligent systems, ensuring that AI operates with accuracy, transparency and business relevance. The platform continuously accelerates optimisation through AI-driven insights, enabling ongoing improvements at scale. By bringing process intelligence and AI together, ARIS On-Prem Process Mining empowers enterprises to reach performance levels impossible to achieve when these capabilities operate independently. It is the only process mining solution purpose-built to dominate on-prem deployments, offering end-to-end process optimisation with native automation integration for highly regulated, security-conscious environments.

Through features such as ARIS Flows, enterprises can orchestrate seamless, no-code workflow automation, integration and process execution and monitoring directly within the ARIS environment. This enables rapid automation, enforcement of governance rules, and maintenance of audit trails, reducing operational risks and manual intervention. 

Ayham Alzaaim, Regional Vice President – Middle East Turkey and APJ - ARIS, said, “As Artificial Intelligence rapidly transforms business operations, true value emerges only when AI is anchored in clear, governed, and contextualised processes. At ARIS, we believe that processes provide the real-world foundation AI needs, enabling operations to perform at peak efficiency. By providing a locally hosted, secure, and scalable platform tailored for Saudi Arabia’s regulatory landscape, we are supporting Vision 2030 and enabling enterprises to futureproof their operations, accelerate digital transformation, and unlock the full potential of AI-driven process excellence.”

Fadi Naffah, Managing Director and Chief Revenue Officer, ARIS said, “As Saudi enterprises face growing regulatory requirements, geopolitical uncertainty, and the escalating demands of environmental and cybersecurity risks, the introduction of ARIS On-Prem Process Mining is timely. With the rapid adoption of AI technologies, organisations need a trusted platform that enhances resilience, enables continuous improvement, and ensures seamless operations in a constantly shifting landscape. ARIS On-Prem Process Mining meets these challenges, providing a secure AI governance framework and a comprehensive engine for process intelligence—empowering real-time, informed decision-making.”

From financial institutions and government entities to industrial leaders, ARIS On-Prem Process Mining provides the assurance, control, and insight required to govern processes, guide AI initiatives, and futureproof operations. 

The evolution of ARIS over the last three decades reflects a vision for the future of enterprise transformation. Having advanced from process mining to AI-driven continuous improvement, ARIS now serves as the foundational architecture for many of the world’s largest enterprises. 

The software provider is uniquely positioned in the BPM market, to serve highly regulated industries with complex requirements through its robust modelling, mapping, mining and analytics capabilities.

Cairo, Egypt – 11 December 2025 – In a move aimed at promoting financial inclusion and providing new payment channels for all segments of Egyptian society, tpay, the leading value-added services provider, announced today the signing of Egypt’s first license with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) to offer Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) for government payments.

This milestone represents a significant step in advancing digital payments in Egypt, allowing citizens to pay for essential government services such as electricity and utility bills, traffic fines, and civil registry services directly through their mobile balance or added to their monthly mobile bill. The initiative expands access to citizens who own mobile phones but do not hold bank accounts or cards, making essential services available anytime with simple and seamless steps, without complex procedures.

The framework agreement was signed by Ahmed Nabil, tpay General Manager, and Mohamed Shamroukh, President of NTRA, marking a key step toward enabling and operationalizing mobile-based government payments in Egypt.

“This development marks a turning point in enabling secure and frictionless payments for government services via mobile numbers,” said Isik Uman, Group CEO of tpay. “Through this licensed framework, we are laying the foundation for a national digital payment channel that broadens access, improves convenience, and supports Egypt’s evolving digital economy. Our mission as a payment connector is to simplify transactions and bring essential services closer to every citizen.”

Financial inclusion data indicates that 76.3% of Egyptian adults already hold active bank accounts, while mobile and mobile internet penetration is nearly universal, highlighting a major opportunity to extend digital payments to even more citizens through mobile devices.

This licensed framework reinforces tpay’s role as the main payment enabler for mobile-based government services in Egypt, providing a trusted, flexible, and scalable pathway for government fee collection, and paving the way for further growth as more government services transition to digital channels.

Dubai, UAE, 9 December, 2025- After establishing itself as the GCC's most trusted agricultural trade platform for the past 17 years, AgraME (Agra Middle East), the Middle East's longest-running agriculture, animal, and aquaculture farming exhibition, announces its rebranding as GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST. This strategic integration of its services into one unified platform alongside GROWTECH. ANTALYA and GROWTECH. JAKARTA elevates the event's mission to connect agricultural innovators across continents. 

Commenting on the strategic vision behind the rebrand, Ahmed Khalil, Portfolio Director, said: "The evolution to GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST represents the natural next step in our journey to serve the agricultural community. We're not changing who we are; we're amplifying our impact by connecting our region's producers with the best innovations from around the world. Our 17-year legacy of trust and results remains the foundation, but now we're building something even more powerful: a truly global platform for agricultural advancement that serves the unique needs of the Middle East while opening doors to international markets and partnerships.

This growth is fully aligned with our One Informa commitment: one unified vision, one global standard, and one integrated ecosystem that strengthens every event across our portfolio.

With GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST, we’re scaling not just agriculture, but all three core pillars of the food production ecosystem: Agriculture, Animal Health, and Aquaculture, ensuring each sector gains the visibility, expertise, and global collaboration it deserves."

The formal partnership was celebrated through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony at the GROWTECH. ANTALYA 2025, which took place on 19 November 2025 at the ANFAŞ Expo Center in Türkiye.

The integration capitalizes on GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST (Formerly AgraME’s) deep understanding of GCC market dynamics and established relationships with regional governments and agricultural authorities, combined with GROWTECH. ANTALYA's expertise in greenhouse technologies, plant breeding, and sustainable farming innovations. These exhibitions together have attracted over 40,000 agricultural professionals annually and facilitated millions of dollars in trade agreements. 

GROWTECH. ANTALYA has established itself as the world's largest greenhouse technologies trade fair, consistently breaking attendance and participation records. The 2024 edition brought together 684 exhibitors from 31 countries,with 39,575 agricultural professionals, with international visitors making 42% of the total attendance. The 2025 editionis expected to host over 700 exhibitors from 36 countries and welcome more than 40,000 visitors.

While GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST (Formerly AgraME)has built exceptional expertise in agriculture, horticulture, animal, and aquaculture sectors, addressing the unique livestock and aquatic farming needs of the GCC region, the integration with GROWTECH. dramatically expands the product portfolio. The unified platform will now offer a complete 360-degree view of agricultural technology, incorporating greenhouse systems, irrigation innovations, seed development, plant nutrition, and precision agriculture solutions that have made GROWTECH. ANTALYA famous worldwide.

The inaugural edition of GROWTECH. MIDDLE EASTunder its new brand identity will take place on September 8-10, 2026, in Dubai, UAE. The three-day format offers ample opportunity for meaningful business discussions, product demonstrations, and knowledge exchange. 

Engin Er, Exhibition Director, GROWTECH. ANTALYA and JAKARTA said: "We are pleased to introduce the GROWTECH. brand to the Middle East, a region with tremendous potential for agricultural innovation and growth. The integration allows us to extend our mission of connecting agricultural professionals to new markets. We look forward to contributing our expertise in greenhouse technologies, sustainable practices, and startup innovation to create exciting opportunities for the GCC agricultural community and beyond.”

The transformation of AgraME into GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of agricultural technology exchange in the GCC region. By uniting proven regional expertise with established global exhibition leadership, this partnership creates unprecedented opportunities for agricultural professionals, technology providers, investors, and policymakers to collaborate on solutions that address food security, sustainability, and economic development challenges facing the Middle East and the world.

For more information, visit the GROWTECH. MIDDLE EAST website for exhibitor opportunities, visitor registration, and updates on conference programming.