News
New Club Allows You To Invest In Lebanese Startups For Just $50
The close-knit group will allow worldwide financial backers to support vetted, high-potential, home-grown Lebanese businesses.
In spite of its troubled economy, Lebanon is home to a burgeoning tech scene and is rapidly becoming a hub for startups and local talent outsourcing.
However, although the country has plenty of potential to shine on the world stage, so far, financial backers and venture capital firms have been slow to invest.
To that end, the leading online source for all things Lebanon, 961, has decided to take action. The result is a new Investor Club where financial backers can support Lebanese startups, helping to reduce unemployment and ignite the growth of a clean economy.
For as little as $50, investors can be part of a close-knit club that will allow them to back vetted, high-potential, home-grown Lebanese founders.
Here are some of the opportunities that the 961 Investor Club is offering local startups:
- Tech & Digitalization: Innovations that drive digital transformation.
- Solving Day-to-Day Problems: Practical solutions to improve day-to-day life.
- Proven Startups Looking to Grow: Established local companies aiming to scale.
- Companies Looking to Expand Abroad: Businesses preparing to enter new markets.
- Taking Concepts/Franchises Abroad: Growing Lebanese brands globally.
Startups based abroad may be eligible for funding, but they’ll need to pass specific criteria. For example, companies must demonstrate potential for significant growth, maintain and keep a sizable team in Lebanon, and prioritize Lebanese hires wherever possible.
Also Read: Top 10 Best Freelance Platforms In The Middle East
In addition to the ever-popular tech startups, investors will also be able to back local restaurants, food trucks, nightlife venues, retail outlets, and franchises.
Experts will rigorously vet all businesses before they are presented to the 961 Investor Club, and members can choose to invest in whatever opportunities interest them most.
How To Join
Head over to the 961 website and fill out the form to join the club and be part of a private WhatsApp group. Alternatively, if you’re one of the Lebanese startups looking for a funding opportunity for your business, you can apply here.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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