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WheelsOn Raises $12.5M To Transform UAE Car Rentals
With 87% of UAE car rentals set to come from online bookings by 2030, the company aims to capture demand with a deposit-free, digital-first service.
WheelsOn, a mobile-first car rental startup based in the UAE, has secured $12.5 million in funding to scale its platform and challenge traditional rental agencies. The round includes $2.2 million in equity from MENA-focused investors, including partners of Xploration Capital, $6.5 million for fleet expansion, and $4 million in bank financing. The new capital brings WheelsOn’s valuation close to $30 million.
The funds will accelerate fleet growth, product development, and market expansion. Key initiatives and new features include AI-powered dynamic pricing, personalization tools that recommend vehicles and insurance based on user profiles, and digital car keys for contactless rentals via smartphone.
WheelsOn was founded in 2023 by Nikolay Melnichuk (Partner, Xploration Capital) and Adlet Shagirov (Co-Founder & COO), later joined by Maxim Olivson (CPO). The company was built to address pain points still common in the UAE: high deposits, hidden fees, and lengthy paperwork.
“Our mission is to rethink car rentals by offering full transparency, digital convenience, and a product that puts users in control. We remove deposits completely, eliminate paperwork and counter queues, and give customers a seamless experience all through our intuitive mobile app and website,” explained Olivson.
Unlike aggregator-style platforms, WheelsOn operates its own fleet, giving it full control over quality, pricing, and customer service. A proprietary fleet management and tracking system monitors vehicles in real time, ensuring proactive maintenance and transparent operations. This infrastructure also enables the company to eliminate deposits and reduce hidden costs, translating into greater trust with users.
Also Read: Riyadh’s KAFD To Launch Driverless Monorail By 2027
The platform supports multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish, and German. It serves a wide audience, from locals seeking flexible monthly rentals, to businesses requiring premium cars or vans, to tourists wanting delivery at airports or hotels.
Looking ahead, WheelsOn plans to deepen its UAE presence while preparing to expand across the Gulf. With online bookings projected to account for 87% of car rental revenue in the UAE by 2030, the startup is positioning itself to capture demand with a transparent, flexible, and fully digital model.
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.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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