News
LVL Wellbeing Receives $10 Million Investment To Scale Operations
The company will use the funds to develop new product features and incorporate Arabic language across the entire platform.
UAE-based startup LVL Wellbeing, a corporate wellbeing platform that aims to help individuals and corporate teams achieve a healthier work/life balance, has successfully closed a funding round led by MG Wellness Holding, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi-based Multiply Group.
The $10 million investment from MG Wellness Holding will enable the startup to incorporate HealthierU into its operations, which is already a subsidiary of Multiply Group.
HealthierU is a marketplace-style platform that connects users with wellness consultants worldwide, offering online 1-to-1 sessions. So far, the app’s ecosystem has yielded incredible results, notably a significant reduction in the risks associated with chronic diseases for many of its users.

CEO of LVL Wellbeing, Gary Blowers, is optimistic about the latest development: “This investment will enable us to continue to grow LVL Wellbeing into the market-leading workplace wellbeing platform [and deliver] a range of exciting new features”.
Referencing HealthierU, the CEO added: “The integration of HealthierU into the LVL Wellbeing ecosystem will enable us to combine forces to offer the most comprehensive preventative health and wellbeing services to our members and clients, starting with further growth in the UAE and then expanding our focus regionally, and then globally”.
The LVL Wellbeing app has a wide range of features, including on-demand video content and curated live sessions designed to support members on their journeys toward improved wellness. In addition, LVL Wellbeing’s corporate clients can access real-time data, enabling them to make informed decisions and understand the ROI of their investments.
Also Read: The Largest Data Breaches In The Middle East
As well as the online space, LVL Wellbeing’s service will soon be available directly in corporate settings, with flagship studios soon to be opened in the Standard Chartered Tower and Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, along with ProSeed in Abu Dhabi.
LVL Wellbeing’s latest investment round comes after a series of business wins, including a partnership that will see the company expanding in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Halifax, Canada.
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.
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