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Dubai Robot Maker To Triple Workforce And Build New Plant
Micropolis is preparing for a $37 million New York Stock Exchange listing that will help the company deliver 350+ robots a year.
Micropolis, a Dubai-based manufacturer specializing in autonomous mobile robots, plans to construct a new production plant and triple its workforce using cash from an upcoming New York Stock Exchange listing.
Once operational in Dubai Production City, the Micropolis factory plans to produce one robot a day to meet a growing customer demand.
Micropolis currently produces two autonomous robots: a golf cart-sized machine known as the M1 and a smaller M2 model which both use the same platform that combines autonomy and advanced AI features.
In 2018, Dubai’s police department became interested in the technology being developed by Micropolis and commissioned an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) featuring AI to help survey areas and improve crime prevention.
“We have software developed in-house called Microspot, equipped with five AI engines – facial recognition, behavior analysis, ANPR [automatic number-plate recognition], criminal logic, and suspect matrix. It makes the robot drive like a patrol car and think like a police officer. It reports suspicious activity, and Dubai Police can scan and keep an eye on communities 24 hours a day,” explained Fareed Aljawhari, Micropolis founder and CEO.
A smaller version of the robot will be trialed in April 2024 before being introduced to more areas later in the year.
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Micropolis robots have also shown potential in the oil and gas industries for pipe surveillance and can also be used to collect and sort garbage. Meanwhile, Neom, Saudi Arabia’s futuristic mega city, is interested in using similar security robots to one developed for Dubai Police.
Since 2018, Micropolis has raised over $8 million in funds from overseas investors and is expected to raise another $37 million from an imminent New York Stock Exchange listing.
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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