KPMG launches Centre of Excellence for Metaverse

KPMG Saudi Arabia partners with Microsoft, Ericsson and Metakey to expedite the application of Metaverse in the wider Middle East region

KPMG, a leading provider of audit, tax and advisory services announced the establishment of its Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Metaverse and Digital Twins. KPMG is bringing together a broad collective, with Microsoft, leveraging infrastructure and gaming platform, Ericsson for their 5G technology and network; and Metakey as the technical partner to develop 3D objects. The objective of the CoE is to expedite Metaverse and Digital Twin application in Saudi Arabia and the wider region.

KPMG launched new Center of Excellence on the side lines of LEAP Conference 2023, a four-day annual tech convention held in Riyadh, which is culminating today. LEAP attracted more than 100,000 tech innovators and leading experts from around the world.

“We have seen an immense commitment from the government to invest in Metaverse and to explore the public utility of the technology. With the launch of the Centre of Excellence, we are proud to bring together a team of experts and organizations to really drive these initiatives forward,” commented Maz Hussain, Head of Digital Lighthouse at KPMG in Saudi Arabia.

“A digital-first principle is to be applied across all the services to be delivered from this CoE, which means that the CoE will provide an incubation function to several technology capabilities that will be required to deliver a differentiated offering to the market,” he added. “Metaverse will help make Saudi firms more competitive and open up global opportunities.”

Digital Twin is the digital counterpart of real-world physical product, system or process in, for example Metaverse, and can be used for practical purposes like simulation, monitoring or educational purposes. Part of the CoE’s objectives to help organizations build Digital Twin objects, processes, and assets.

Saudi Arabia has made an immense commitment to investing in the Metaverse and gigacities, creating vast opportunities within the government, public and private sectors across various industries. 

Zainab Alamin, Vice President of Digital Transformation & Sustainability, Microsoft Arabia commented: “We are proud to join this initiative and take a leading role drive innovation and bring value to Saudi Arabia and the region through the application of Metaverse technologies which supports Vision 2030 by making Saudi a digital hub and Riyadh the capital of innovation and AI".

According to KPMG, Metaverse will position Saudi Arabia on a global stage, creating safe, secure environments to facilitate Saudi business and society within national policies with the CoE being the foundational steppingstone towards the achievement of this overall target.

As part of the CoE, KPMG has allocated a dedicated co-investment fund for Metaverse use-cases in Saudi Arabia to work together with public and private partners on expediting the technology for practical use.

“With the traction we see in the market, we are very optimistic about the future of Metaverse and Web3 technologies in the Kingdom. With our CoE, guided by an advisory board of global ecosystem partners and with a dedicated team of specialists from academia and industry, we will be very focused on use case development in Saudi Arabia,” concluded Hussain.