NAVER Arabia to Establish First Strategic Business Entity – NAVER Cloud and NHC Innovation Sign JV Agreement
NAVER Arabia to Establish First Strategic Business Entity – NAVER Cloud and NHC Innovation Sign JV Agreement
NAVER Arabia to Establish First Strategic Business Entity – NAVER Cloud and NHC Innovation Sign JV Agreement
– Joint launch of “NAVER Innovation,” the first Middle Eastern strategic business entity, comprehensive cooperation spanning from digital twin to “super app” to drive Saudi Arabia’s smart city vision
May 28, 2025
NAVER Cloud (CEO Kim Yu-won) announced on May 28 that it had signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC) to formally begin the establishment of a strategic joint venture (JV). The new JV aims to accelerate digital transformation in the public and residential sectors through the adoption of smart city technologies and improve the quality of life for Saudi citizens.
The newly established strategic JV, “NAVER Innovation,” will be the first business entity under “NAVER Arabia,” NAVER’s regional headquarters. It will be jointly funded by NAVER Cloud and NHC Innovation, NHC’s digital subsidiary. NAVER Innovation will focus on developing and operating a map-based super app that supports various aspects of daily life, such as housing and transportation, for Saudi citizens and visitors, with plans to expand upon the existing digital twin–based services.
NAVER’s digital twin platform is currently scheduled for deployment in major cities across Saudi Arabia. This platform will offer advanced urban planning features, including flood prediction, traffic flow analysis, and population distribution modeling. Both companies expect the new JV to contribute to building sustainable, data-driven smart cities and position Saudi Arabia as a global leader in the digital twin domain.
With this JV, NAVER Cloud strengthens its presence in the Middle East by leveraging its world-class technological capabilities, while NHC Innovation bolsters its leadership in the smart city innovation sector. NAVER Cloud plans to optimize and localize its proven solutions in booking, payment, and personalization systems—already successful in Korea— tailored to the Saudi market’s infrastructure and cultural context.
Rayan Alaql, CEO of NHC Innovation, stated, “The establishment of this JV represents Saudi Arabia’s commitment to localizing world-class technologies to meet the needs of our communities. Together with NAVER Cloud, we aim to build smart cities aligned with the Vision 2030 goals of sustainability, innovation, and improved quality of life.”
Kim Yu-won, CEO of NAVER Cloud, added, “We are honored to join local partners in Saudi Arabia on this innovative journey of digital transformation. NAVER Cloud is committed to actively supporting Saudi Arabia’s leadership in smart city innovation.”
Previously, in November last year, NAVER Cloud and NHC signed a memorandum of agreement (MOU) at “Cityscape 2024,” the world’s largest construction exhibition held in Saudi Arabia. In October 2023, NAVER also won a contract from the Saudi Ministry of Municipalities and Housing to build a digital twin platform and has since been actively implementing it in major cities in Saudi Arabia.
[Photo] Signing ceremony for the NAVER Innovation joint venture agreement. (Clockwise from top left): Chae Seon-ju, Head of Strategic Business Division at NAVER; Majed bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, Minister of Municipalities and Housing; Rayan Alaql, CEO of NHC Innovation; and Han Sang-young, Executive Director at NAVER Cloud Global DX & Innovation
