Saudi Arabia: Saudi digital firm stc Group has signed an agreement with global telecommunications alliance Alaian which will see them working together to search for innovative start-ups across the world.

The memorandum of understanding was inked during the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, and will see the entities exchanging pioneering solutions and successful business models from the telecommunications industry, as well as sharing best practices, lessons learnt and success cases in the Open Innovation field.

The collaboration will also see the organizations seeking to gain visibility in entrepreneurial ecosystems by launching joint communication strategies in media and raising their profiles at global innovation events, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Alaian is a global alliance for innovation that brings together eight of the world's leading telecommunications companies, with its members having a total of 700 million customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

The alliance has already opened a global search for start-ups based on use cases that enrich existing and new technologies, such as 5G and Fibre, with offerings that generate additional customer value.