Elm Company Lands at LEAP East Hong Kong to Pitch Saudi Digital Model

Saudi Arabia’s Elm Company will take part in LEAP East Hong Kong 2026 as Business Solutions Partner, the company said on Friday, ahead of the technology conference’s 8 July opening at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Riyadh-listed digital solutions provider is using the platform to court governments, tech sectors and businesses across the Asia-Pacific region for the first time. Elm joins a conference whose own lineup carries government backing from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Hong Kong’s Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau. The role gives Elm speaking slots on four of LEAP East’s flagship stages and access to the event’s Tech Investor Program.

LEAP East, running 8 to 10 July, marks the first international edition of a conference that has run four editions in Riyadh since 2022, drawing more than 215,000 attendees and USD 14.9 billion in announced deals over that span. The Hong Kong edition is co-organised by Tahaluf and MCIT, with the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as Government Partner. Elm’s release says the company will use the platform to deepen ties with governments, tech sectors and businesses across APAC.

Elm Books Four LEAP East Speaking Slots

Elm will field four executives across LEAP East’s four flagship stages, the company said in its 3 July announcement on Elm’s Business Solutions Partner role. The headline slot is a Main Stage fireside chat, “Ambition at Infrastructure Scale: How Saudi Turns Digital Vision into Operational Reality”, led by Majed Al Otaibi, Elm’s Chief Government Products Officer, on 8 July from 12:00 to 12:20pm. Three other Elm leaders will take DeepFest, Ecosystem Xchange and Orbital stages to address AI in software engineering, growth in emerging digital economies, and smart and sustainable city development. Elm did not name those three executives in its announcement.

The stage split lets Elm pitch four different audiences from the same booth. The Main Stage fireside chat is aimed at senior government and policy attendees, with Al Otaibi’s title placing a government focus on the slot. The DeepFest, Ecosystem Xchange and Orbital sessions target developer, investor and city-builder audiences respectively.

The four-stage presence also gives Elm access to LEAP East’s Tech Investor Program, where its investment and partnerships teams will engage directly with technology companies, institutional investors and startups exploring collaboration or market entry into Saudi Arabia. Elm said it has invested more than USD60 million across 20 companies and completed strategic acquisitions exceeding USD33 million across eight deals, a track record it cites as proof of its appetite for further APAC partnerships. The company did not break out the size, sector or vintage of those 20 portfolio companies or eight acquisitions. Its 3 July announcement does not name specific partnership targets at LEAP East. The release frames the event as a meeting venue.

Elm’s 30 Million-User Saudi Base Goes on Display

Elm operates the digital infrastructure that serves more than 30 million users in Saudi Arabia, runs over 170 large-scale digital projects, and enables more than 2 billion digital transactions annually across the government platforms it builds. The company said its work has contributed to a national government digital service maturity index of 86 percent in 2025, described in its announcement as among the highest globally.

That footprint spans artificial intelligence, data analytics, smart cities, digital identity and financial technology, developed through three decades of partnership with the Saudi government across security, health, transport and finance. Elm’s investor materials list the company’s joint-stock listing on the Saudi Exchange under ticker 7203, with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) holding the majority stake. The company was founded in 1988. Elm describes the 86 percent 2025 figure as “among the highest globally”, without naming the methodology or peer benchmarks in its release. The release presents the 86 percent figure as a national indicator of Saudi government digital maturity.

Elm has already extended the model beyond Saudi borders. The company lists compliance and inspection platforms in Oman, national archiving and ERP systems in Jordan, judicial digital transformation in Iraq, and finance sector modernisation in Syria among its active regional engagements. None of those four country programs is sized in the release.

Saudi Arabia’s broader digital transformation push, documented as a 19-year push led by the kingdom’s tech ministries, places government technology at the centre of the country’s diversification strategy. Elm’s appearance at LEAP East comes as one of the named carriers of that effort, alongside the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, which co-organises LEAP itself. The 30 million user figure covers Saudi users, not APAC users, and gives a sense of the scale the company brings to a region where it has no current operating footprint. The release does not disclose an APAC headcount or office plan, and stops short of naming any APAC-based partnership it has already signed.

Four Country Programs Already Live in the Region

Each of those four country programs sits in a different sector, and together they map how Elm has positioned its platform beyond Saudi borders. Oman and Jordan host compliance and ERP systems that are described in the release as active engagements. Iraq and Syria host judicial and finance programs also described as active, in modernisation framing.

The Oman program covers compliance and inspection platforms, putting Elm inside the country’s regulatory technology stack. In Jordan, Elm lists national archiving and ERP systems, two areas where Saudi-built government platforms have a track record from Riyadh deployments. The Iraq work covers judicial digital transformation. The Syria program is finance sector modernisation. None of the four programs is sized in dollars or users in the release.

All four programs are government-facing deployments. That mix matters at LEAP East, where Elm is positioning itself as the builder of large-scale government digital infrastructure. The release does not disclose which Elm business unit owns each country program, or whether any of the four are run through joint ventures with local partners. It also does not disclose revenue contribution from any of the four regional engagements.

USD60 Million in Investments, USD33 Million in Acquisitions

Elm brings an investment track record to LEAP East that the company says underpins its appetite for further APAC partnerships. The release puts the figure at more than USD60 million invested across 20 companies, and more than USD33 million completed in strategic acquisitions across eight deals. The release does not disclose whether any of the 20 portfolio companies or eight acquisition targets overlap, and does not name the sectors or geographies of those investments.

Those numbers are anchored in the company’s own announcement, not in any third-party registry. The release also does not name the 20 portfolio companies or the eight acquisition targets, leaving the track record as a stated headline figure rather than a verifiable roster. Neither USD60 million nor USD33 million carries a vintage in the release. Both are described in the release as completed past activity.

The track record matters because LEAP East’s Tech Investor Program is the slot where Elm says it will engage with technology companies, institutional investors and startups exploring collaboration or market entry into Saudi Arabia. APAC-based investors and acquirers in that program would see a partner that has already deployed capital inside Saudi Arabia’s regulatory and government-tech sectors. The release does not say whether Elm is at LEAP East to raise capital, deploy capital, or both. It also does not specify whether the APAC outreach targets equity investments, commercial partnerships, or government-to-government contracts. The full investment pitch, by the company’s own framing, is the APAC appetite Elm is bringing to the event.

The investment track record is one of two financial headlines in the release. The other is Elm’s joint-stock listing on the Saudi Exchange under ticker 7203, with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) holding the majority stake. The release does not name the size of PIF’s stake or disclose Elm’s market capitalisation.

The PIF majority stake gives Elm’s APAC outreach a state-aligned character. PIF sits behind both the company and the broader Saudi digital transformation push Elm is bringing to LEAP East. The release positions Elm as a partner for governments and institutional investors, with no direct quote from PIF leadership on the APAC push. PIF is named only as the majority shareholder in the boilerplate.

A Conference Built Government-to-Government

LEAP East’s institutional structure is built on government-to-government cooperation. The event is co-organised by Tahaluf and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), with the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) as Government Partner. The Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), one of LEAP’s co-organising bodies alongside MCIT in the parent conference, sits inside the same Riyadh-aligned institutional cluster as Elm’s majority shareholder PIF. OASES, Hong Kong’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises, has joined LEAP East as a Supporting Partner, putting another government layer underneath the conference. The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Dubai, the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and HKAI Lab round out the Supporting Partner list, mixing state vehicles with private-sector anchors, according to the February 2026 release on LEAP East’s institutional backers.

That dual-government scaffolding shapes how the conference is framed. Saudi and Hong Kong government backing allows each participant to position itself as a partner to either state, alongside any commercial buyer relationships. No APAC-headquartered Business Solutions Partner is named in the 3 July release.

We warmly welcome the first ever LEAP East to be staged in Hong Kong, the best springboard for overseas enterprises to take a leap forward bringing their products and services to the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area, other areas of the Chinese Mainland and the wider Asian markets.

Prof. Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the HKSAR Government, gave the quote in the February 2026 Tahaluf release on LEAP East’s institutional backers. He spoke in his HKSAR capacity. The wording positions Hong Kong as a springboard for overseas firms into the wider Greater Bay Area and Chinese mainland market. The HKSAR quote appeared in February 2026, separate from Elm’s 3 July release.

The Scale of LEAP East’s First Hong Kong Edition

LEAP East is sized as a tier-one technology event. The conference lists more than 250 speakers, more than 400 exhibitors, more than 250 investors and more than 250 startups on the LEAP East Hong Kong official site. The Hong Kong edition is the first outside Riyadh, where four LEAP editions since 2022 drew more than 215,000 attendees and announced more than USD 14.9 billion in deals. Elm’s Business Solutions Partner role puts the company in front of all four of those audiences at once.

The speaker list mixes Big Tech operators with regional specialists. Six confirmed speakers span Chinese AI, cross-border payments, Japanese industrial digital, US-headquartered AI research, Indian IT services and AI-driven drug discovery. The mix leans toward AI, governance and financial infrastructure, three of the categories Elm lists in its own capability set.

Elm’s four-stage presence runs alongside that broader lineup. The Tech Investor Program role gives the company a second commercial slot beyond the speaking stages. The press release describes the appearance as a relationship-building venue. The next Elm announcement on APAC partnerships, when it comes, will be a separate release.

Elm’s APAC opening bid lands on 8 July at 12:00pm Hong Kong time, the start of a three-day run at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Main Stage fireside chat with Majed Al Otaibi runs 12:00 to 12:20pm. The conference is the first international edition of LEAP since the Riyadh flagship launched in 2022.