News

Dubai Fintech Tabby Launches eCommerce “Tabby Shop” App

500,000 products will be available to purchase from multiple retail brands.

Published

3 years ago

August 29, 2023

Nour Nasir

Tabby

Tabby is a pioneering Buy Now, Pay Later fintech serving the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia with over 5 million active users. Now, the startup will offer an additional service via a dedicated “Tabby Shop” app.

The app is a fully-fledged eCommerce marketplace where retailers can offer their products, opening up another revenue stream and capturing more online shoppers.

As well as wish-listing and deal alerts, the Tabby Shop app will offer coupon codes and exclusive offers. The platform will allow users to buy over 500,000 products at zero interest rates, covering brands in the fashion, beauty, electronics, and home categories.

Also Read: Ovasave Empowers Women To Tackle Difficult Fertility Choices

“For shoppers, discovering their favorite brands and products is easier than ever while allowing our retailers to tell their story to the region’s most powerful shopping community,” said Hosam Arab, CEO and co-founder of Tabby.

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.

Published

6 days ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

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.