LeBusiness — Lebanon Business News & Market Insights
Days Turns One With 35,000 Coffee Sleeves Sold and 150+ UAE Stores
Beirut coffee brand Days completes its first year on October 1, the same date as International Coffee Day. Founded in 2025 by Youssef Rahal and Rawad, it roasts in small batches and ships within the month, and has become the first Lebanese coffee brand to receive a Great Taste Star.
Lebanon Salaries vs Dubai, London and New York: 23 Roles Priced in 2026
A sponsored benchmark by OEG Outsourcing compares monthly gross pay for 23 roles in Lebanon, the Gulf, the UK and Europe, and the US and Canada. It argues the gap reflects where the employer sits rather than skill, and flags eight Lebanese roles with no published wage data.
Superpowders: From 500 Bags of Mushroom Coffee to 1,000 Stores
Beirut-based Superpowders began with a first run of 500 mushroom coffee bags and $6,000 from each co-founder. Its zero-sugar electrolytes and mushroom coffee now reach more than 100,000 customers in Lebanon, with the UAE live and two new markets planned by the end of October.
Panic Zones, a survival card game by four Lebanese founders, passes 5,000 units
Panic Zones: Arctic Edition launched in December 2025 after about two years of development and 600+ playtests. It has since sold over 5,000 units across five MENA markets and is heading to SPIEL Essen, with the UK and US next.
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Viral Vision: The Beirut Holding Company That Started With $500
Souheil Sabban launched Mr. Football at 18. It became the first brand in a growing e-commerce portfolio.
Souheil Sabban founded Viral Vision in 2023 after watching his family lose its savings in Lebanon's banking crisis. The company now runs several e-commerce brands, including Mr. Football, Rule The Pitch, and REYZ Eyewear, from shared systems in Beirut.
$60 Million in Lebanon's 2027 Draft Budget to Restart Housing Loans
Dollar loans of up to $100,000 at 3.5% are proposed for first-time owners, pending Parliament's approval.
Lebanon's draft 2027 budget allocates $60 million to the Public Corporation for Housing to resume home loans. The proposed loans would reach $100,000 in US dollars at a 3.5% rate, limited to applicants who do not already own a home.
No Suitcase Needed: Wakilni Teams Up With DHL Express Lebanon
The Lebanese delivery company now lets customers send personal items, gifts, and orders abroad through DHL's network.
Lebanese delivery company Wakilni has partnered with DHL Express Lebanon to offer international shipping for personal items, gifts, and online orders. The article covers how the service works, published delivery zones and indicative rates, and the restrictions that apply.
LEVEL11 Advisory's Ghina Itani: ten out of ten is only the baseline
Ghina Itani founded the Dubai advisory in 2025 after two decades of watching marketing drift from the business.
Ghina Itani spent twenty years in regional boardrooms before founding LEVEL11 Advisory in Dubai in 2025. The firm works with businesses across the GCC and MENA on brand, communications and growth as one conversation rather than three.
BY Venture Partners-Backed AIC Expands naviflow.ai
AIC is building an AI-powered shipment operations platform for importers, exporters, traders and distributors.
AIC DWC-LLC is putting more of its international trade technology work behind naviflow.ai, a platform that pulls shipment operations into a single workspace. The product is aimed at importers, exporters, traders and distributors in sectors such as FMCG, pharmaceuticals and commodities.
Rise, the Gemmayze coffee bar that took refined sugar off the menu
Melissa El Haddad left investment banking in London to build Lebanon's first refined sugar-free adaptogen coffee bar.
Melissa El Haddad studied industrial engineering at AUB, completed a master's in international finance at HEC Paris and worked in investment banking at UBS in London before returning home. With no prior F&B experience, she built and opened Rise in Gemmayze during war, creating Lebanon's first fully refined sugar-free and adaptogen-focused coffee and wellness bar. The concept combines specialty coffee, matcha, smoothies and desserts without refined sugar. Functional ingredients such as Lion's Mane and Ashwagandha let customers personalize their drinks according to how they feel.
Inside OEG Outsourcing, the Beirut Firm Building Remote MENA Teams
Founded in Beirut in 2021, OEG now has roughly 1,200 full time placements working inside clients' systems abroad.
OEG Outsourcing employs engineers, support agents and back office staff across Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Syria, then places them full time inside the systems of companies in North America, Europe and the Gulf. Clients pay one monthly rate per person and sign a single agreement, with no local entity and no recruitment fee. Founder Fayez Nicolas Chaar says the talent was always there; what was missing was a company willing to carry the employment risk.
ReFramed Runs From Lebanon, With Dubai Operations Next
Jason Azzi and Jad Chabtini started the brand in Lebanon at the end of 2023 and are now adding a Dubai operation.
ReFramed started in Lebanon at the end of 2023 with $1000 and a dream. Two founders under 18 shaped the Lebanese everyday wear market building one of the largest luxury streetwear brands in the country. A global expansion is next.
Lebanon's Banks Hold $100.42B in Assets as Resident Lending Falls Further
Three quarters of the sector's assets now sit at the central bank, while loans to residents dropped 7.79% in a year.
Lebanon's commercial banks closed July 2026 with $100.42 billion in consolidated assets, a 2.18% decline from a year earlier, according to data analyzed by BLOMInvest Bank. Deposits parked at Banque du Liban made up almost 75% of the total, while claims on resident customers fell to $4.1 billion. Capital accounts were the one major account to grow, rising 12.59% year on year to $5.4 billion.
Lebanon's Card Count Grew 0.8% While POS Terminals Jumped 22.6%
New BDL data shows debit cards carried almost all the growth while prepaid cards lost nearly 60,000 in six months.
Banque du Liban data shows Lebanon ended June 2026 with 1,727,765 payment cards, a rise of 0.80% since December 2025. The headline number hides a sharp shift in the mix, with debit and charge cards growing while prepaid cards fell 16.60%. Point of sale terminals expanded far faster than cards, adding 5,053 units in six months.
Mastercard and neo by Bank Audi Partner on Free SME Banking
neo Business gives Lebanese companies a free account, a Mastercard business card and a POS device at no cost.
neo, the digital bank by Bank Audi, has announced a partnership with Mastercard behind neo Business, its package for small and medium companies in Lebanon. It includes a free account with a dedicated IBAN, a Mastercard business card, a POS device delivered at no cost, and no fees on payroll, collections and bill payments.
Lebanon Caps Card Fees at 1.2% as Electronic Payments Climb
Banque du Liban and the ministries cut merchant commissions from about 2.5% to a maximum of 1.2% in essential sectors.
Lebanon is pushing to shrink its cash economy through central bank circulars, lower merchant commissions and card terminals inside government offices. Ministry of Economy figures show electronic payment shares more than doubling at restaurants and large supermarkets, with online payments now above half of transactions.
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Tutorak Builds a Peer Tutoring and Advising Platform for LAU and AUB Students
The Beirut startup pairs students with peer tutors, advisors, and mentors across 30+ LAU courses.
Founder and managing partner Chris J. Armache started Tutorak with partners Marc Youssef and Abdul Nasser Halabi after finding it hard to locate course-specific tutors, and wanting a community where every student can get help and the ones teaching can build, grow, and lead. The platform now spans tutoring, academic advising, consulting prep, and a leadership program. It reports 20+ tutors and advisors and more than 100,000 Instagram profile views since launch.
Why I Built Lebanon's First Insurance Vehicle Auction House at 19
AA Group founder Georgio Antypas on replacing closed garage deals with open auctions for total-loss cars.
Georgio Antypas explains how AA Group brings the Copart model to Lebanon: insurers send damaged and salvage cars to its lots, buyers inspect them in person, place a deposit, and bid over two weeks. He argues the open auction gets insurers a better price and lets buyers skip importing unseen cars from abroad.
Fresh Dollar Checks in Lebanon Near $1 Billion Mark by July 2026
ABL data shows 76,180 fresh USD checks worth $960.7M cleared since BDL opened the new system in 2023.
Association of Banks in Lebanon figures show 76,180 fresh US dollar checks worth $960.7 million and 28,258 fresh Lebanese pound checks cleared by July 2026. Checks in the legacy clearing system fell more than 35% year on year, while returned checks dropped nearly 43%.
SouqMetrics Wants Ecommerce Teams to Catch Problems Before the Weekly Report
The AI-powered system reads store, ad and customer signals together and tells operators what changed and why.
SouqMetrics connects commerce, advertising, attribution, customer and profitability data into one intelligence layer that flags risks and points operators to where they should look next. One month after launch it is already working with brand teams including KStore, Pharma Tech's and DAYS Coffee, on EU-hosted, read-only infrastructure.
How to Spot Ecommerce Ad Spend Problems Before They Eat Your Margin
Five warning signs that most ecommerce reports show too late, and what to check when each one appears.
Ad spend rarely fails loudly; it drifts. This guide walks through five warning signs, from CPA creeping above target to campaigns that lean on returning customers, and gives a short weekly routine to catch each one. SouqMetrics is used throughout as the example of how automated monitoring handles the same signals.
Elie Saab Named as H&M's Next Designer Collaborator
The Lebanese couturier's collection with the Swedish retailer lands in stores and online on October 22.
Elie Saab is the next designer to partner with H&M, with a womenswear, menswear, accessories and shoes collection launching on October 22, 2026. The line will be sold in selected H&M stores worldwide and online, including stores across the Gulf and Egypt. The Beirut-founded house joins a list of past H&M collaborators that includes Karl Lagerfeld, Versace and Balmain.
Alfa Adds 93 Network Sites, With 20 More Due Before the End of 2026
Half the new sites run on solar power, and Alfa says the full upgrade will reach 600,000 subscribers by mid-2027.
Alfa has deployed 47 sites in 2025 and 46 so far in 2026, covering Beirut and 23 districts. The new sites already carry 47 terabytes of data a day, about 7 percent of the network's daily internet traffic. Chairman and CEO Rafic El Haddad says the wider modernization project will be finished before the end of the second quarter of 2027.
BLC Bank launched nomad, a new digital banking app
BLC Bank's new app opens Fresh USD and LBP accounts, issues virtual and physical cards, and pays by QR.
BLC Bank has launched nomad, a mobile app that lets customers open Fresh USD and LBP digital accounts, request virtual and physical cards, and pay by scanning QR codes. The bank is introducing it through an outdoor teaser campaign running across Lebanon, built around QR codes and short, unexpected messages. Here is what the app actually does and how the sign-up works.
