BrazilPwC takes stake in homegrown AWS consulting partner Zero&One
Big Four firm PwC has taken an undisclosed stake in Zero&One, one of the leading Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Consulting Partners in the region.
Packaged as a ‘strategic investment’ by both firms in a joint release, the capital injection will provide Zero&One the financial muscle to expand its services portfolio and grow its customer base across the region.
Founded in 2017 by the Lebanese Ali El Kontar, Zero&One has in the space of just five years grown into the first homegrown AWS Consulting Partner to achieve Premier Tier in the MENA region. In 2021, Zero&One was awarded both the AWS Consulting Partner of the Year as well as AWS Migration Partner of the Year awards for the MENA region.
“We are excited and humbled to have PwC on board with us,” said El Kontar. “We are confident that this milestone will give us the opportunity to continue to expand in the region and help organisations realise the full potential of the Amazon Web Services Cloud. It’s just the beginning!”
Zero&One’s 40-strong team of engineers, architects and developers are located in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Many of them hold AWS certificates such as Solutions Architect Professional, DevOps Professional and Security Specialty.
Meanwhile, for PwC, the investment adds to its growing ecosystem of ventures and alliances in the cloud ecosystem, and deepens its AWS capabilities at a time when Amazon is ramping up its presence in the region – AWS has among others committed to opening a number of data centers in the UAE.
Ali Hosseini, Chief Digital Officer at PwC, commented: “The investment in Zero&One grows our cloud capability and gives us an end-to-end cloud transformation capability, from strategy to execution. With bilingual capabilities and a presence in the UAE and Lebanon, we’re confident that this investment further enables PwC to serve clients better in the region and explore new opportunities around cloud migration, modernisation and cloud native services.”
The deal builds on several cloud related deals PwC has closed worldwide over the past year, and follows on the 2020 Middle East acquisition of SAP specialist business Tyconz.
Stephen Anderson, Clients & Markets Leader at PwC, said: “This is another important investment amongst many we have made into the region’s technology sector, where we constantly look to innovate and build strategic partnerships to play a vital role in the region’s digital transformation and accelerate our clients’ growth and transformation ambitions.”
According to ConsultancyME’s Top Cloud consulting firms in the Middle East 2022 ranking, PwC is one of the leaders in the cloud domain, across technology stacks including AWS, Google, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP.
