News

Farfetch Aims To Bring Web3 To The World Of Fashion

What does Web3 offer to fashion? Farfetch CEO and founder José Neves is on a mission to blend the real world with the virtual.

Published

4 years ago

August 11, 2022

Nour Nasir

farfetch aims to bring web3 to the world of fashion

José Neves is no stranger to innovation. The Portuguese billionaire and owner of online luxury fashion platform Farfetch revolutionized eCommerce back in 2007, creating a business model that blended boutique shopping with online retail.

Today, Neves is using his innate knowledge of both haute couture and technology to explore how Web3 can enhance the world of fashion. Web3 describes the blockchain-integrated internet, where crypto and NFTs are built directly into platforms, creating a new online world owned by its users. On a recent Most Innovative Companies podcast, Neves explained his enthusiasm for Web3, explaining that “If Web1 was about ‘read’ and Web2 was about ‘read and write’, then Web3 is about ‘read, write, and own’.’’

Neves aims to take the Farfetch brand into the new Web3 environment using their Dream Assembly Base Camp accelerator program, which according to a press release back in July, will:

“Provide a cohort of the most promising Web3 startups in the luxury fashion and lifestyle sectors with a curated program of mentorship, networking, and support in order to help drive the future of Web3 luxury commerce.”

Also Read: Intro Platform Connects Users To Celebrity Experts

The 12-week program is a partnership with Outlier Ventures, which has backed startups since 2014. The platform will focus on “digital fashion, tokenized loyalty, immersive experiences, and the creator economy”, with participating startups having direct access to a network of investors and mentors.

Neves believes that with Web3, the potential is endless, with the application of principles of user control and decentralization being a perfect fit for fashion, where people’s styles often act as second personas, or even masks. The entrepreneur now hopes that emerging technology will increase interaction between creators and users, as Farfetch becomes actively involved in the Web3 luxury commerce space with its new accelerator program, yet again standing at the forefront of fashion, culture, and technology.

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

2 weeks 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.