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Visa And Whish Money Partner To Expand Digital Payments In Lebanon
The first-of-its-kind partnership enables Whish Money to integrate Visa’s payment tech, advancing secure, scalable fintech solutions for over a million users.
Visa has entered a strategic partnership with Lebanon-based fintech Whish Money to enhance digital payment capabilities across Lebanon and international markets. The collaboration, announced at Whish Money’s newly opened campus in Beirut, positions the fintech company to integrate Visa’s advanced technologies into its platform — bringing improved speed, security, and global reach to its more than 1 million users.
The partnership marks a regional milestone: it is the first time Visa has partnered with an e-wallet provider in the Levant. Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for North Africa, Levant, and Pakistan, described the alliance as one rooted in shared values of trust and innovation. She emphasized that Visa’s vast global network — spanning over 200 countries — will help accelerate Whish Money’s international expansion.
Whish Money, which has already established a global footprint, sees this agreement as a major step in its evolution. CEO and co-founder Toufic Koussa called the deal a “significant milestone,” citing the fintech’s strong compliance and security infrastructure as key enablers. He also noted Visa’s rigorous due diligence process as a sign of confidence in Whish Money’s operational maturity.
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By embedding Visa’s digital payments infrastructure, the partnership will allow Whish Money to offer more seamless, efficient, and secure services — bolstering its standing in both domestic and global markets. The two companies plan to jointly raise the bar for fintech innovation, particularly in regions where reliable digital financial services remain underdeveloped.
As Lebanon’s fintech ecosystem gains momentum, collaborations like this signal a broader trend: global payments leaders are increasingly looking to regional innovators to co-create the next generation of digital financial solutions.
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LUVED Is A New Curated Preloved Marketplace For The UAE
Sellers keep 100 percent of every sale and AI can build a listing in five seconds — though the app’s smartest tools are still coming.
Secondhand shopping has become mainstream in the UAE, but the experience is still scattered across resale sites, social media and informal group chats. LUVED, a mobile-first marketplace that launched in Dubai this month, is betting it can pull that activity into one place — and that the thing buyers and sellers actually want is not more inventory, but trust.
The app trades in what it calls circular luxury: preloved fashion and lifestyle pieces across men’s, women’s and children’s categories, bought, sold or given away peer to peer. Its main pitch is economics, with sellers keeping 100 percent of every sale under a zero-commission, fast payout model, while buyers are promised vetted pieces at lower prices.
Where LUVED is staking its reputation is verification. Sellers pass a KYC check, and items run through a two-layer authentication system powered by Entrupy that pairs instant AI screening with human expert review for high-value pieces. Authenticity certificates travel with each item, payments sit in escrow, and a buyer-protection package the company calls The Safety Net adds a 48-hour return window and dispute resolution. Door-to-door logistics removes the in-person meetups that make most resale deals awkward.
An in-app assistant called Luvbot — offering selling insights and demand-based recommendations — is soon to be introduced to the platform. Other features include autofill and dynamic pricing that lets users build a listing in as little as five seconds from three photos, plus a swipe-based feed, story-style drops and in-app chat in English and Arabic. Finally, a gifting layer, Luved & Gifted, lets users pass items to others inside the app rather than sell them.
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“After moving to Dubai, I saw how difficult it was to sell or even give things away,” says founder and CEO Shaima Sibtain. The friction is real, and so is the competition. In resale, trust is won transaction by transaction — and that is the test LUVED has set itself.
The app is live on the App Store now, with Google Play to follow. The company also plans to expand across the region, which will be the real test for a marketplace staking everything on trust.
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