Oivan

Oivan is a digital transformation consultancy founded in Helsinki in 2020 through the merger of Nixu Middle East (which traces its Saudi Arabia presence to 1998) and IWA. The company has over 200 employees spread across seven cities in five countries: Riyadh (operational headquarters), Helsinki, Bangkok, Khon Kaen, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang. In Saudi Arabia alone, Oivan has over 70 experts working on government and enterprise digital transformation aligned with Vision 2030.

Oivan operates as a full-stack consultancy building, operating, and securing digital services at national scale. The company reported 23 million USD in revenue in 2025. Its leadership includes CEO Rami Korhonen, CTO Jussi Virtanen, and Chief Delivery Officer Arun Natarajan, among others listed on the company website.

Services and capabilities

Oivan's core offering spans AI-driven digital engineering, platform development, cloud modernization, and managed services. Under "AI Driven Digital Engineering," the company develops web and mobile applications using open-source LLM projects and AI systems orchestration. It offers two productized services: Oivan Propel (AI-powered modernization of legacy systems) and Oivan Elevate (capacity-building for software development teams). The company uses AIOps, DevOps, MLOps, and automation-first approaches to operate platforms at scale.

On the cloud side, Oivan provides migration and modernization services to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), alongside managed cloud services for both legacy and modern hyperscaler environments. It operates advanced AI workloads under regulatory controls. The company's backend engineering focuses on systems that scale from low-traffic cost-efficiency to millions of concurrent users and temporary usage spikes.

Oivan's digital service design capability covers user research, service design, design sprints, UI/UX design, design system creation, and brand design. Its cybersecurity team includes PhD-level expertise and provides consulting on both technical and social-level security protocols. The company is an official partner of CNTXT & Google Cloud, SUSE (for container platforms, Kubernetes, and Linux environments), GitLab (DevSecOps and CI/CD), F5 (load balancing and WAF), SSH Communications Security (privileged access management via PrivX), Sendmarc (DMARC and email security), and Nextcloud (self-hosted collaboration platforms).

Notable work

Oivan has built digital services for Saudi Arabia's public sector and major enterprises since 1998. It serves as the long-term strategic partner for National Housing Company (NHC) and NHC Innovation, responsible for platforms Sakani and Ejar since 2017. The company has managed NHC's cloud infrastructure since 2019. Other named clients include NEOM, Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), Saudi Energy Efficiency Center (SEEC), and leading Saudi real estate developers and telecommunications providers.

International clients include AIS (Thailand's largest telecom operator with 45 million customers), for which Oivan redesigned the myAIS mobile application in 2022, and NREP (Finland-based real estate developer). The company has partnered with Big Mango on AI engineering for production readiness and worked on energy efficiency platforms, cybersecurity posture enhancement, Kubernetes implementations in air-gapped environments, and cloud migration for mission-critical platforms supporting millions of users. Specific measurable outcomes are not detailed in the source material, though projects are labeled by type: Accelerate, Build, Operate, Secure.

How they work

Oivan describes its model as combining "Nordic engineering standards" with "deep regional presence." The company operates a distributed team across seven cities with local leadership in Riyadh while maintaining global delivery. It emphasizes an onsite consultation model paired with distributed production delivery. The company advocates a balanced approach: using established open-source technologies as foundation while adopting newer technologies (AI, extended reality, decentralized ledger) only where they solve real problems. Project examples range from rapid prototyping to national-scale digital service deployment. The source does not specify billable rates, fixed-price vs. T&M structures, or typical project duration, though engagements span from short-term acceleration projects to multi-year operational partnerships.

Team and credentials

Oivan was founded in 2020 by the merger of two entities with combined roots back to 1998. Co-founders Rasmus Roiha (chairman) and Tapio Äijälä (board member, Chief Strategy Officer) are listed. The team of 200+ spans Finland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, UAE, and Vietnam, with proficiency in multiple languages. The company cites 27 years of experience from its founders in building digital services. No formal security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) or compliance badges are mentioned in the source material. The company does highlight PhD-level cybersecurity expertise and references compliance with local Saudi regulations for AI and data residency.