News

Procural Has Secured $1.2 Million In Seed Investment

The Bahrain-based startup is set to scale and expand the reach of its innovative platform.

Published

4 years ago

March 2, 2023

procural has secured $1.2 million in seed investment

Procural is an AI-driven procurement service that matches B2B vendors and buyers using advanced algorithms and data. The platform offers a cloud-based infrastructure, customizable workflows, automated purchase orders, and real-time budget tracking.

Now, the Bahrain-based startup has secured a seed investment of 1.2 million USD from Flagship Holding and BenchMatrix in a bid to accelerate product development and boost market growth.

“We found a gap in the market and have developed a secure, scalable solution that can be accessed from anywhere. By streamlining the purchasing process, businesses can save time and money while ensuring compliance with their procurement policies. This investment is a validation of our platform’s credibility and potential, and we’re excited to work with Flagship Holding and BenchMatrix to take Procural to the next level,” says Uzair Usman, the chief executive and co-founder of Procural.

Also Read: Areeba To Bring Biometric Payment Authentication To MENA

With an extensive suite of data-driven analytical features, Procural helps businesses to manage procurement, track spending, and identify opportunities for cost savings and improvements in process efficiency. The platform helps to digitize the entire procurement process flow, from request to fulfilment, increasing their clients’ sourcing outreach.

With the new funding, Procural will expand its team, improve the platform’s feature set, and accelerate growth, helping the company to become the go-to procurement solution for businesses looking to streamline their workflows.

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

1 week 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.