years: 2026

Dubai, UAE – July 27, 2026: Yango Group, a UAE based tech company, has invested through its corporate venture fund, Yango Ventures, in Egypt-based Fincart as part of the e-commerce operations platform’s oversubscribed $2.8 million seed round. The funding will support product development, team growth and new commercial partnerships as Fincart prepares to expand into additional markets across MENA and Africa. Yango Ventures will also provide product, technology and scaling expertise drawn from Yango Group’s experience across international markets.

Fincart helps e-commerce merchants manage several critical parts of their operations through one platform, including shipping, cash reconciliation, access to working capital and customer engagement. Its locally developed technology addresses operational challenges that can prevent small and medium-sized merchants from growing efficiently. The investment aligns with Yango Group’s strategy of supporting early-stage companies that are building digital infrastructure for businesses in high-growth markets.

Founded by Mostafa Masry and Nihal Ali, Fincart began as a service connecting e-commerce merchants with last-mile delivery providers. It has since developed into an AI-powered operating system that integrates with more than 40 shipping providers, giving merchants access to a broad connected delivery network through a single platform. Its tools help merchants monitor delivery performance, automate cash reconciliation and strengthen customer retention. Eligible merchants can also access short-term working capital based on their sales data.

“We have built technology businesses in more than 35 markets, and one thing remains true everywhere: small businesses grow way faster when technology removes operational complexity,” said Daniil Shuleyko, CEO of Yango Group. “Fincart is addressing this challenge by simplifying logistics, improving delivery performance, and giving merchants access to better operational and financial tools. This infrastructure allows businesses to spend less time managing fragmented processes and focus more on growth. We’re excited to back such an ambitious team and look forward to supporting their journey as they scale across the region.”

“Yango’s partnership marks a defining chapter for Fincart, combining their unmatched operational depth across Africa with our vision to become the operating backbone of e-commerce for merchants across the continent. With their support, we’re not just expanding into new markets; we’re building the infrastructure to power the next growth phase of e-commerce SMBs in emerging markets,” said Mostafa Masry, co-founder and CEO of Fincart.

Fincart currently serves more than 450 merchants and enterprise clients. Its automated shipping and cash-reconciliation workflows have supported the delivery of products worth nearly EGP 1 billion, equivalent to approximately $20 million. Almost 40% of customer acquisition has come through referrals, despite the company spending nothing on marketing during the past three years. The new funding will support product development and team growth while enabling Fincart to strengthen commercial partnerships ahead of its planned expansion into new markets in 2027.

Yango Ventures is a $20 million corporate venture fund of Yango Group aimed at supporting promising startups in MENAP, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Through Yango Ventures, the company provides early-stage companies not only with capital, but also with global expertise in ride-hailing, e-commerce, fintech, and AI — helping them scale effectively and sustainably. Previously made its first regional investment through Yango Ventures in UAE-based Comfi AI, an embedded finance company that helps SMEs access working capital directly through their existing business operations.

Dubai, UAE, 15 July 2026: Uniquely You Mental Health Center, the UAE’s first publicly neurodivergent-owned and operated mental health clinic, has identified anxiety, school-related stress, bullying, peer relationship difficulties and emotional regulation challenges among the most significant mental health concerns affecting teenagers aged 13 to 17.

The analysis draws on findings from international and UAE studies, as well as the center’s psychologists’ interactions with teens, highlighting how academic expectations, social pressures and family circumstances can intersect during a period of rapid emotional and developmental change. The findings reinforce the need for earlier recognition and closer collaboration between homes, schools and mental health professionals.

Global and regional research signals growing concern

The World Health Organization estimates that one in seven people aged 10 to 19 globally experiences a mental disorder. Anxiety, depression and behavioural disorders remain among the leading causes of illness and disability within this age group. Anxiety disorders are also more prevalent among older adolescents than younger teenagers.

The regional picture is slightly higher. A joint UNICEF and WHO report estimates that around one in six adolescents across the MENA region live with a mental disorder. The report also identifies gaps in early detection, school-based support and coordination between health, education and social services.

A UAE national study involving 3,745 school students identified anxiety symptoms among 23.3% of participants. Depression and anxiety were significantly more common among late adolescents.

Mental health concerns frequently overlap

Uniquely You’s analysis found that adolescent concerns are best understood when examined within the broader context of their lives rather than in isolation. Anxiety can be connected to academic pressure, friendship conflict, difficulty managing emotions and reduced self-esteem. These pressures may be compounded by family or behavioural concerns and experiences of trauma.

Neurodivergent teenagers, including autistic young people and those with ADHD, may encounter additional challenges linked to attention, sensory demands, communication, social expectations or unrecognised support needs. Understanding these connections can help prevent distress from being misinterpreted solely as poor behaviour, disengagement or declining academic performance.

Smartphones and social media have reshaped adolescence

The rapid rise of smartphones and social media has reshaped adolescence, turning digital platforms into a constant arena for validation. Psychologically, this can intensify social comparison, uncertainty around identity and fear of exclusion. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that teenagers are online for almost nine hours daily on average, excluding time spent on homework.

High or compulsive screen use, particularly late at night, can disrupt sleep, worsen self-esteem concerns and increase exposure to cyberbullying. WHO research also links problematic social media use to later bedtimes, poorer wellbeing and reduced academic performance.

Responding to this, the UAE has set the minimum age for social media use at 15, prohibiting younger children from operating personal accounts. The measure reflects growing recognition that adolescents need stronger digital safeguards, supported by parental guidance and age-appropriate conversations about online behaviour.

Elaine Maichin, MSc, NCC, LPC, Psychologist (CDA) and Owner of Uniquely You Mental Health Center, said: “Teen mental health cannot be understood through one symptom or one setting. Anxiety may be shaped by academic pressure, friendship conflict, low self-esteem, family dynamics, trauma or an underlying neurodevelopmental difference. Research consistently points to the value of early recognition and coordinated support. Parents, schools and mental health professionals need to share observations, listen carefully and respond before distress begins to disrupt learning, relationships, sleep or daily life for a young person.”

Uniquely You MHC is expanding partnerships with schools across the UAE, supporting students referred for anxiety, academic stress, emotional regulation, learning and attention challenges, behavioural concerns, social difficulties, depression, autism and ADHD. Elaine Maichin also serves as a guest lecturer at schools, sharing clinical insight on student mental health, neurodiversity and early intervention. The center works with teachers, counselors and parents to align support across school and home.

Dubai, UAE — July 13, 2026 — Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, today announced that it has signed a multi-year strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate enterprise agentic AI adoption to help joint customers worldwide build and deploy AI faster and more securely. As part of the expanded collaboration, Snowflake is making a $6 billion multi-year infrastructure commitment to AWS, its largest to date, reflecting the accelerating enterprise demand for AI and data workloads running on AWS.

Snowflake was founded on AWS eleven years ago, and that foundation has grown into one of enterprise software’s broadest and deepest collaborations. The majority of Snowflake’s customers run on AWS today, with AWS recognizing Snowflake as a leading partner driving global customer adoption.The latest agreement builds on this momentum with deeper product integrations across generative AI and agentic AI, expanded go-to-market through AWS Marketplace, and joint investments in customer success programs, workload migrations, and strategic industry solutions designed to help enterprises move from AI experimentation to production-scale outcomes.

“AI has generated enormous excitement, but for enterprises, the real challenge and opportunity is turning intelligence into action,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO of Snowflake. “We are moving into the era of the agentic enterprise, where AI systems don’t just answer questions, but help organizations reason over trusted data, coordinate workflows, and drive real business outcomes. With AWS, we are making it easier for enterprises to bring AI directly to governed data, so they can move faster, operate with greater clarity, and create measurable impact at scale.”

“Enterprises are rapidly moving from experimenting with AI to putting intelligent agents to work that drive real business outcomes,” said Matt Garman, CEO of AWS. “Snowflake has built on AWS since day one, and their deepened commitment to run on Graviton delivers the world-class performance, flexibility, and cost savings customers need to run data warehousing and AI workloads at scale.”

Bringing AI to Where Enterprise Data Lives
AI is only as powerful as the data behind it. The expanded collaboration is anchored in a technical architecture that brings foundation models directly to governed enterprise data, eliminating the complexity and risk of moving sensitive information between systems.

Snowflake Cortex AI enables customers to build and deploy AI applications for text-to-SQL, summarization, sentiment analysis, and entity extraction directly within their Snowflake environment. Enterprises are rapidly adopting these capabilities to run AI on trusted, governed data without moving it outside their secure perimeter. Snowflake leverages AWS Graviton processors, delivering significant price-performance improvements for customers, and utilizing high performance, GPU-accelerated Amazon EC2 instances for AI model training and inference.

Accelerating AI Adoption with AWS
Since Snowflake first became available in AWS Marketplace, customers have embraced it as the fastest path to procure and deploy Snowflake’s AI and data capabilities – surpassing $7 billion in lifetime sales and exceeding $2 billion in calendar year sales in 2025, more than doubling transaction growth year-over-year. The expanded SCA builds on that trajectory, scaling joint initiatives to help even more customers discover, procure, and deploy AI and data solutions through AWS Marketplace with simplified contracting, faster procurement.

Snowflake has also continued expanding its global footprint on AWS, with launches completed or underway in 10 new regions including New Zealand (Auckland), South Africa (Cape Town), Thailand (Bangkok), AWS European Sovereign Cloud, and others to help customers meet data residency requirements and deploy AI closer to where their business operates.

Customers Deploying AI on Governed Data
From startups to global enterprises, customers including Fetch and Hex use Snowflake on AWS to unify data, eliminate silos, and deploy AI applications and agents on governed data to drive measurable business impact.

“AI is deeply embedded in how Fetch builds and operates every day, and our work with Snowflake and AWS is strengthening that foundation,” said Daniel Block, General Manager of Revenue and Partnerships, Fetch. “With Snowflake Cortex AI, we’ve deployed a semantic agent that allows our sales teams to query campaign data in natural language and get instant insights. This enables faster, more informed decision-making across our business to deliver more value for our brand partners.”

“Snowflake on AWS is the foundation that many of our customers rely on to move fast with data,” said Caitlin Colgrove, Co-Founder and CTO, Hex. “For teams using Hex to explore, analyze, and build with AI, having that layer be secure, governed, and performant isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s what makes enterprise AI adoption real.”

Snowflake and AWS will further demonstrate their shared vision for enterprise AI at Snowflake Summit 26.

Dubai, UAE, July 15, 2026 – Swisslog, a leading provider of data-driven warehouse automation solutions, has repositioned its proven monorail system under the new name FastMove. The updated product identity reflects enhanced customer value, with a focus on performance, flexibility, and improved equipment lifecycle for long-distance pallet transport.

FastMove is a high-capacity electrified monorail system designed to move palletized goods efficiently across complex warehouse environments. Building on more than 40 years of proven Swisslog technology, this next-generation monorail solution enables companies to optimize material flow over long distances while maintaining high throughput and gentle handling of goods.

Driving high pallet throughput while maintaining flexibility

With enhanced throughput management, Swisslog strengthens its commitment to delivering measurable operational advantages. FastMove allows customers to significantly increase throughput, with transport speeds of up to 2 m/s and system capacities exceeding 600 pallets per hour. This high-performance capability helps operators meet growing demand and manage peak volumes more efficiently.

Compared to conventional conveyor-based transport systems, FastMove offers a more favorable cost position, particularly in applications requiring long transport distances or high throughput. Its ability to transport large volumes over extended distances with fewer system components contributes to reduced installation and operational costs, while also improving space utilization within the warehouse.

The system has been designed with flexibility and scalability at its core, allowing customers to adapt their intralogistics infrastructure as business requirements evolve. Its modular track design supports complex layouts and can be adjusted with minimal effort. Throughput scales simply by modifying the number of vehicles operating within the system, enabling a phased investment approach that aligns with business growth and demand fluctuations.

Extending service life: Upgrade packages for modernization

FastMove also offers clear advantages for existing operations. Its components are well suited for modernization and retrofit projects, enabling customers to upgrade performance and extend the service life of their intralogistics infrastructure without requiring a complete system replacement.

Current upgrades are applied primarily at the controls and software level, with mechatronic requirements addressed where needed, protecting existing investments while ensuring installations remain current and compliant.

The next product release, available by the end of 2026, is designed to meet the requirements under the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and machinery regulations.

Designed for demanding environments and diverse industries

FastMove is engineered to perform reliably under a wide range of operating conditions. It operates in environments from deep-freeze temperatures of -30°C to ambient conditions of up to 50°C and handles loads of up to 1,500 kg, or up to 3,000 kg with twin-load configurations. These capabilities make it a versatile solution for the food and beverage, consumer goods, and retail sectors, where performance and robustness are non-negotiable.

Seamless integration with intelligent software

FastMove integrates into existing warehouse IT infrastructure through Swisslog’s SynQ software platform, enabling intelligent control of material flows and synchronization between automated and manual processes. Transparent, data-driven operations are supported throughout, meeting the growing demand for connected intralogistics solutions.

“FastMove represents the next step in the evolution of monorail technology at Swisslog,” said Giovanni Franco, Product Manager, Pallet Transportation at Swisslog. “By combining high performance with modular scalability and cost efficiency, we provide our customers with a future-ready solution that supports growth, modernization, and long-term operational excellence.”

Dubai, UAE, 07 July 2026: Qashio, the MENA region’s leading spend management solution, is rewarding its UAE customers with exclusive FIFA World Cup 2026™ fan experiences, including premium viewing access, interactive competitions, and hospitality benefits at Emirates Golf Club’s Footy Central in Dubai. The initiative gives customers the opportunity to experience a dedicated football watch party destination during the world’s biggest football tournament.

Running from 11 June to 19 July 2026, Footy Central will screen live matches alongside themed F&B, interactive games, family-friendly activities, competitions, and matchday entertainment. The programme builds on the global appeal of football’s premier event, which reached more than five billion viewers across all platforms during its previous edition, and reflects Qashio’s value proposition beyond spend management by turning client loyalty into tangible rewards and premium benefits.

The campaign will unlock exclusive access to selected matchday rewards and fan activations for Qashio customers, including F&B vouchers, matchday credits, Viya Points, gaming rewards, and VIP hospitality experiences. Viya Points, the digital reward currency within the Viya App ecosystem, can be redeemed across a premium lifestyle network of 400 venues, extending the value of the campaign beyond the matchday.

Guests can participate in the Ronaldo Header Challenge, where they can test their heading accuracy, while the FIFA Console Zone will host the PS5 FIFA Esports Challenge: Road to the Cup, with guests competing in head-to-head matches for leaderboard positions and daily rewards. Half-time engagement will include lucky draws during key matches, alongside Predict & Win competitions that reward guests for accurate match predictions.

Armin Moradi, CEO and Founder of Qashio, said: “Football is the most popular sport in the UAE among both Emiratis and the broader expat population, which makes the FIFA World Cup 2026™ a powerful moment to celebrate with our customers. Qashio was built to help businesses manage spend with more control and value, and this campaign extends that promise by turning loyalty into memorable experiences for finance leaders and teams across the country.”*

The FIFA World Cup 2026™ customer rewards campaign reflects Qashio’s broader approach to building a spend management platform that combines financial control with meaningful customer engagement. Through rewards, activations, competitions, and hospitality benefits, Qashio is continuing to create value for businesses beyond transactions, while giving customers new ways to engage with one of the most anticipated sporting events in the world.

Dubai, UAE, July 06, 2026: Despite the rapid growth of the GCC healthcare sector, sourcing medical equipment, finding trusted suppliers, accessing specialized services, identifying investment opportunities and acquiring healthcare businesses remain fragmented and inefficient. MedSahra, a new B2B medtech platform, has launched to address this challenge by bringing the region’s healthcare ecosystem together in a single B2B platform.

MedSahra connects medical equipment, professional services, logistics providers, healthcare businesses and industry participants across the GCC within one unified digital ecosystem. It enables clinics, suppliers, service providers, investors and other market players to discover opportunities faster, communicate directly, close deals more efficiently and grow their businesses through a more transparent, connected and modern healthcare commerce infrastructure. The launch comes as the GCC healthcare market continues to expand, with the sector valued at approximately US$33 billion in 2026 and expected to nearly double to around US$60 billion by 2030.

Boris Shleyfer, Co-Founder of MedSahra said: “The GCC’s healthcare economy is expanding quickly, but many businesses still depend on fragmented channels to find and sell medical equipment, provide business services, partners and investment opportunities. MedSahra was built to give professional market participants a more structured way to transact with confidence. Our mission is to build a trusted commercial ecosystem that goes beyond healthcare providers, connecting every professional market participant involved in the healthcare economy—from suppliers and service providers to technology companies, investors, advisors and business partners—to enable more efficient collaboration and sustainable long-term growth. ”

Iuliia Belokrinitskaia, Co-Founder of MedSahra, said: “Healthcare is no longer driven by providers alone. It depends on a connected business ecosystem, where every decision relies on trusted partners, market visibility and efficient collaboration. Today, those connections remain fragmented across the GCC. MedSahra brings the ecosystem together in one trusted platform, giving decision-makers greater visibility, faster access to opportunities and confidence. Our ambition is to build the digital infrastructure that powers healthcare commerce across the GCC.”

Through MedSahra, healthcare organizations and businesses can discover, buy and sell new and pre-owned medical equipment, connect with trusted business and technical partners, access specialized services and explore investment and acquisition opportunities across the GCC. The platform brings together healthcare commerce, professional services, logistics, business transactions and technology solutions within a single digital ecosystem, helping organizations streamline operations and reduce the time required to identify reliable partners.

By combining intelligent matching, direct communication, moderated listings, quality control and optional user verification, MedSahra creates a trusted environment where companies can build partnerships, negotiate directly and unlock new business opportunities with greater transparency and efficiency.

June 19, 2026 — Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, today announced that Unlimitail, a leader in omnichannel retail media, has selected Snowflake to power its retail media network. Unlimitail will build its upcoming Global Retail Media Data Hub on Snowflake, using Snowflake Data Clean Rooms to allow retailers to activate first-party data at scale and collaborate securely, without data ever leaving their own environments.

Retail media is one of the fastest-growing channels in digital advertising, but also one of the most fragmented. According to Publicis’s 8th eRetail Media Barometer, nearly two-thirds of European advertisers now invest in audience extension through retail media, and approximately half allocate more than 20% of their total media mix to the channel. As investment scales, two challenges are holding back its full potential: managing data collaboration securely across a multi-retailer ecosystem, and proving genuine ROI beyond clicks and impressions.

Unlimitail understands these challenges firsthand. For several years, the company has operated Carrefour’s first-party data in real-world conditions, both onsite and offsite, and has extended its model to retailers including MediaMarkt Saturn, MyOrigines, ID Kids, and Hygie 31. Activating each retailer’s data traditionally required moving it into a centralized system, a step few retailers would accept. Building on Snowflake removes that barrier.

With Snowflake Data Clean Rooms, retailers and brands across Unlimitail’s network can analyze shared audiences and measure campaign outcomes against real purchase data, measuring whether campaigns actually drove purchases, not just clicks. Role-based controls and Snowflake’s zero-copy architecture help ensure each retailer sees only what they need to, while keeping privacy measures intact.

That collaboration also scales to many players at once. Retailers, brands, publishers and third-party data partners can contribute, analyze and activate data together in a single, controlled environment without any party exposing their raw data to others. The result is richer, more complete audience intelligence across the entire Unlimitail ecosystem.

Unlimitail plans to launch its Global Retail Media Data Hub on Snowflake later this year, a platform that will serve as the single connection point for retailers, brands and agencies across Europe and LATAM.

“Retail media is only as powerful as the trust and data behind it, and that trust has to be earned, not assumed,” said Alexis Marcombe, Chief Executive Officer, Unlimitail. “By building on Snowflake, we can give every retailer in our network full control of their first-party data while also giving brands the closed-loop proof they’ve been asking for. We are building the infrastructure to become the global standard for how retail media works.”

“Most retail media measurement stops at the click. With Unlimitail, brands can go all the way to the receipt, and that changes the conversation they can have about the ROI of their retail media investment,” said Simon Contreras, Industry Principal, Retail & Consumer Goods, Snowflake. “Snowflake makes it possible to do that at scale, across markets and retail partners, without any retailer giving up control of their data.”

Muscat, Oman, 16 June 2026: Whitewill, the international luxury real estate agency operating across the UK, USA, UAE and Oman markets, has recorded an OMR 1.74 million Fendi Casa Villa sale at AIDA by DarGlobal, one of the highest-value villa transactions within the development. The deal reflects the rising appeal of branded residences in Oman, as international buyers show stronger willingness to invest in projects with distinctive design, premium infrastructure, lifestyle-led amenities, and long-term value potential.

The transaction comes as Oman continues to attract greater attention from global property buyers, supported by the country’s Vision 2040 strategy, economic diversification agenda, stable investment environment, and progressive policies allowing foreign nationals to acquire freehold property. Whitewill began building its Omani operations in 2023 and established a dedicated office and brokerage team in Muscat in 2024, following a significant increase in investor demand.

Svetlana Politova, CEO of Whitewill Abu Dhabi and Oman, said: “The Fendi Casa Villa transaction reflects the direction of Oman’s premium real estate market, where international buyers are increasingly looking beyond entry price and focusing on design quality, lifestyle value, infrastructure, and long-term potential. Supported by Oman Vision 2040, progressive freehold policies, and rising investor confidence, the Sultanate is building a stronger position as a destination for both capital preservation and quality living.”

Balanced demand across investment and lifestyle-led purchases

Whitewill’s Q1 2026 buyer insights show that Oman’s real estate market continues to attract a balanced mix of investment and lifestyle-led demand. According to the agency’s data for 2025 and Q1 2026, 39% of clients purchased property primarily for investment, 36% bought for personal residence, and 25% viewed real estate as both a lifestyle asset and a long-term investment.

The market structure has remained stable compared with 2025, although buyers are becoming more selective. There is stronger interest in projects with quality infrastructure, reputable developers, lifestyle positioning, tourism potential, and long-term rental demand. Among end users, demand is largely represented by families and couples relocating to Oman or purchasing second homes.

Oman’s buyer base is also highly diversified, with Whitewill completing transactions with clients from more than 50 countries across 2025 and Q1 2026. CIS countries and Europe continue to represent the largest share of buyers at 43%, while demand from Asia (11%), the Middle East (9%), and other international markets is contributing to a more balanced global buyer profile.

Apartments remain the leading product type

Apartments remain the most in-demand property type in Oman, accounting for 56% of buyer demand across Whitewill’s internal sales statistics for 2025 and Q1 2026. Villas accounted for 31%, while branded residences represented 13%. One-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are attracting the strongest interest due to their balance between affordability, rental demand, and investment returns. Larger villas and branded residences are typically purchased for personal use and long-term family living.

The data also shows an even split between investment and personal-use demand, reflecting a market where rental-income opportunities and residential purchases are carrying equal weight. This reflects a sustainable market environment where investment activity is supported by growing lifestyle-driven demand.

Muscat leads demand as Salalah and Sohar gain momentum

Among the most in-demand projects in Muscat were AIDA by DarGlobal, The Sustainable City Yiti by Sustainable Development, Olive Farms by Muriya by Orascom, Vistal by Victoria Swarovski by LEO Development, Luma Residence by Muscat Bay, and Yenaier by Adanté. During Q1 2026, Salalah also recorded stronger investor interest, supported by its tourism potential and unique climate conditions, with demand concentrated around Amazi Hawana Salalah by Muriya by Orascom and projects by Al Zaid Real Estate Development in the Takah district. Sohar is also gaining momentum, with the Plumeria project by Sohar Real Estate Development LLC and Majd attracting interest due to its strategic location and long-term investment potential.

Currently, Whitewill’s Oman portfolio includes over 30 projects from globally recognised and trusted developers, including DarGlobal, SDIC, Muriya by Orascom, Eagle Hills, Saraya Bandar Jissah SAOC, and Al Mouj. The firm also works with local developers including Alargan Towell, Maysan Properties, and Ideal Building Development. Many of these projects benefit from the involvement of Omran Group, the government’s development arm, further supporting investor confidence in Oman’s long-term real estate outlook.

June 26, 2026 — Alteryx, Inc., an AI-ready data and analytics company, today announced that it has been recognized by Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company, as a leader in the analytics and measurement category in The Modern Marketing Data Stack: Governing the Agentic Enterprise Report.

Now in its fifth year, Snowflake’s Modern Marketing Data Stack report reflects a major shift in how marketing organizations operate—from fragmented tools toward AI-driven, agentic systems built on governed data foundations. This edition draws on insights from more than 11,500 Snowflake customers and ecosystem partners across 13 categories, highlighting how organizations are bringing industry-leading applications directly to their data to drive faster execution and proven business outcomes across the marketing lifecycle, while addressing the growing demands of data gravity, privacy and trust.

As companies centralize their data on cloud platforms like Snowflake, marketing teams are under increased pressure to turn that data into information for more accurate decisions and personalized customer experiences. But many analytics workflows still rely on extracting data into separate processing environments, creating delays, governance challenges, and unnecessary infrastructure costs that slow teams down.

To address these hurdles, Alteryx is expanding its cloud-native analytics capabilities with Live Query for Snowflake, enabling organizations to execute data transformation, orchestration, and analytics workflows directly within the Snowflake AI Data Cloud using Snowflake’s scalable compute engine. By minimizing data movement and pushing processing directly into Snowflake, customers can simplify infrastructure complexity, reduce operational overhead, and accelerate enterprise-scale analytics through the low-code experience of Alteryx One.

“Organizations want to scale analytics and agentic AI without adding more complexity,” said Rajkumar Irudayaraj, Senior Vice President, Global Technology and Innovation Partners at Alteryx. “Together, Alteryx and Snowflake help businesses operationalize trusted analytics and AI directly where their data lives. With Live Query for Snowflake, teams can turn business logic into governed analytics and AI workflows directly in Snowflake, helping to personalize customer experiences and accelerate decisions without data movement. Business users get a no-code experience, data teams can extend with code, and organizations can move faster without compromising governance or control.”

Alteryx and Snowflake help marketing teams operationalize governed, AI-driven workflows for use cases such as autonomous campaign optimization, predictive micro-segmentation, always-on attribution modeling, and generative content personalization at scale. Teams can orchestrate intelligent agents to combine data from across the business, apply trusted business logic, and automate decision-making directly within Snowflake. This enables faster insights, more responsive customer engagement, and continuous optimization without requiring complex data engineering resources. By executing analytics and AI workflows where data resides, organizations can reduce data movement, strengthen governance, and improve security and performance at scale.

“Enterprises are rethinking how they manage and activate data as AI becomes more deeply embedded into business operations,” said Denise Persson, Chief Marketing Officer at Snowflake. “Alteryx’s recognition reflects the strong value our collaboration delivers to joint customers. Together, Snowflake and Alteryx enable enterprises to streamline analytics workflows, helping teams accelerate decision-making, strengthen governance, and scale AI-driven operations with greater efficiency and flexibility.”

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – June 19, 2026: Effie Awards Saudi Arabia 2026, held under the theme “Pride of the Kingdom”, crowned winners across 26 categories, 12 industry categories and 14 specialty categories, marking a historic milestone of its first edition in celebrating the Kingdom’s marketing effectiveness. The winners were evaluated by a jury panel composed of 100+ leading professionals that recognised campaigns for demonstrating strategic excellence, creative innovation and measurable business impact.

The sector continues to grow strongly, with Saudi Arabia’s marketing and advertising agency market size projected to reach USD 4.13 billion by 2031, driven by a 5.3% CAGR. The market report also highlighted digital advertising accounting for more than 60% of total agency revenue, reflecting a strong shift toward performance-led, data-driven marketing across the Kingdom.

This growing momentum was reflected on the ground at the event, which brought together the industry at scale. Several marketing professionals, brand leaders, agency executives and industry stakeholders attended the event, celebrating the campaigns and organisations delivering tangible business results through effective marketing.

On the same day, the event’s flagship forum –The Effectiveness Edit, spotlighted discussions on the impact of technology and AI on marketing performance, changing consumer behaviour, the role of creativity and culture in driving growth, and the challenge of balancing short-term results with long­term brand building. The programme brought together senior leaders from across the Kingdom’s public and private sectors, featuring speakers from Google, Kantar, Accenture, Saudi Tourism Authority, Samsung Electronics Saudi Arabia, King Salman International Airport, Saudi Automobile & Motorcycle Federation, Saudi Ceramics, Anghami+, Al Othaim Entertainment, L’azurde, EVIQ, Gathern, Herfy Food Services, and more.

Winners of the first Effie Awards Saudi Arabia

 

During the awards celebration, the Gold winners stole the spotlight with their innovative storytelling and groundbreaking approaches. Winning brands included Balady+, Tourism Development Fund, Barq, Sakan Foundation, Sayyar, MDLBEAST and more.

The evening’s highest honor, the prestigious Grand Prix award, was presented to Sayyar for “Time To Speak Up For Manhood” recognizing the campaign that best demonstrated exceptional marketing effectiveness and business impact.

The Silver awardees proved that effective marketing thrives on a balance of bold ideas and sharp focus. The awardees included brands such as Mobily, Sensodyne, Doritos, Mentos Gum, KUDU, Holsten Brewery, making their mark with brilliant ideas and campaigns that delivered measurable results.

The Bronze honorees resonated deeply with audiences and left a lasting impression through effective execution and meaningful impact. Winning brands included Lay’s, IKEA, and many more.

The evening also celebrated outstanding organizational achievement through the programme’s Special Awards.

The Most Effective Advertising Agency Office of the Year – Saudi Arabia award was given to Habbar, recognizing a body of work that consistently delivered exceptional effectiveness across multiple campaigns.

The Most Effective Media Agency Office of the Year – Saudi Arabia was awarded to OMD UAE, honouring excellence in media strategy, planning, and execution.

The Most Effective Agency Network of the Year – Saudi Arabia was awarded to Foaj Group, recognizing sustained performance and effectiveness across the network’s portfolio of work.

The Most Effective Brand of the Year – Saudi Arabia was awarded to Mobily, celebrating a brand that demonstrated exceptional commitment to effective marketing and business success.

Commenting on the occasion, Sahar Rafique, Managing Director of NordStella, said: “Saudi Arabia is home to some of the most ambitious brands, marketers, and creative talent in the world. Through Effie Awards Saudi Arabia, we are proud to create a platform that celebrates not only creativity, but the effectiveness and business impact behind it. The winners recognized represent the very best of what our industry can achieve when bold thinking is matched with strategic excellence. As we celebrate this inaugural edition, we also celebrate the remarkable momentum of the Kingdom and the future that lies ahead.”

The inaugural edition was made possible through the support of a valued network of partners committed to advancing marketing effectiveness and industry excellence across the Kingdom. Effie Awards Saudi Arabia proudly recognised YouTube, Max, Holsten, Spike Media, Akama Holding, and Million as its Effieciate Partners, supporting the platform’s mission to celebrate ideas that drive measurable impact. The event was further supported by Sherpa Communications as PR Partner, Taf3ol KSA Business as Emerging Digital Media Partner, and Communicate as Media Partner.

Organized by NordStella, Effie Awards Saudi Arabia celebrates the transformative impact of effective marketing and aims to establish a lasting platform that recognizes and inspires marketing excellence in the Kingdom, for years to come.