News

Hub71 To Invest $2 Billion In New Web3 Startup Ecosystem

Hub71+ Digital Assets will give startups access to venture capital companies and technology providers in Abu Dhabi and beyond.

Published

4 years ago

February 16, 2023

Nour Nasir

Hub71

Abu Dhabi global technology accelerator Hub71 is seeking to disrupt the Web3 space with the announcement of a new ecosystem focused on startup funding and blockchain technologies.

Over $2 billion has already been committed in capital, enabling the new Hub71+ Digital Assets ecosystem to offer Web3 startups access to venture capital companies, customers, tech providers, blockchain platforms, and much more.

hub71 digital assets launch event

Hub71’s anchor partner is First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and its research and innovation center, known as FABRIC, will, in turn, help FAB to leverage its financial services in the metaverse. Further corporate, government, and investment partners will support the project’s growth across the UAE and beyond.

Also Read: A First Glimpse Of Dubai’s Air Taxis Flying Past Local Landmarks

“Hub71+ Digital Assets signifies that Abu Dhabi is open to disruptive businesses driving forward change and transformation on a global level. Teaming up with ADGM, FAB and its research and innovation center, FABRIC, alongside the world’s leading Web3 companies and enablers under one roof, will provide founders with an opportunity to fundraise, develop and commercialize innovations safely while operating within the largest regulated jurisdiction of virtual assets in the MENA region,” says Ahmad Ali Alwan, Deputy CEO of Hub71.

The new Hub71 alliance will help startups benefit from ADGM’s diverse ecosystem and efficient regulatory environment, which will help develop the UAE economy to keep pace with global trends.

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.