Lebanese fintech leader plans European expansion from Nicosia

FOO, a leading fintech provider in Lebanon, has opened an office in Nicosia. The company plans to expand in Cyprus and around Europe from its base here.

 by George Eid and Andrew Rosenbaum

Elie Nasr started the process of moving his company that focuses on technology from Beirut to Nicosia back in April. Currently he has three employees in Nicosia, but plans to move 18 more here shortly.

 Founded by Elie Nasr,37 and Ghady Rayes,37 in Beirut in 2009, Foo provides a solutions for digital payments. Working with cards, wallets and platforms,  Foo has distinguished its place in the market by focusing on innovation and seamless delivery. For example, one of the innovative features included in FOO’s Acceptance Platform is the tone-based payment that enables merchants to accept payments based on contactless tones/sounds.

“Within a couple of years, the company expanded to the MENA region and secured a large portfolio of reputable clients such as Bank Audi, Mastercard, VISA, Saudi British Bank and BENEFIT (Bahrain’s Electronic Network for Financial Transactions) Bahrain. With a growing Fintech market expected to reach $2.5 billion in 2020 in the MENA region, FOO has the technology and the drive to capture a significant share of that market” explained its founder Elie Nasr in an interview with Cyprus Mail.

FOO in collaboration with Zain Payments recently launched the first end-to-end automated Micro-Lending Platform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia called “TAMAM.” This enable users in the Kingdom to benefit from micro-loans digitally and instantly without having to prepare complicated documentation or to visiting bank branches.

The company also provided Doha Bank with a platform for a digital wallet.

“Our passion for technology and software development enabled us to focus sharply on gaps in the market and to drive our research accordingly,” he added.

At first the company released, ‘FOOMe’, a messaging app with social features similar to WhatsApp, which quickly reached 30,000 subscribers. The company’s success and the exposure it received at Arabnet back then drove a number of requests from leading consumer brands in the region for FOO to act as their mobile applications agency” Nasr said.

Nasr expects that setting base in Nicosia will be “the basis for us to expand to Europe.”  The founder of Foo explained that he chose Cyprus due to its proximity to Lebanon. He sees it as an opportunity to operate in a peaceful country with a solid infrastructure and to kick-off his European operations.

“We are opening up our office in Spain as we speak and another offshore development office in eastern Europe.”

“We had envisioned having operations in Cyprus back in April as part of our continuity plan and due to the economic turmoil in Lebanon. For now, we have a small team here,  and we are also actively recruiting 10 more local talents. We are pleased with the pool of talent available in Cyprus” he comments.

Nasr seems to be satisfied from the overall process of moving to Cyprus that he started in July and he describes it as “super smooth”. He intends to discuss his plans with Invest Cyprus shortly.

The company that has 120 employees around the region in Turkey, Lebanon, Dubai and Cyprus hopes to grow its business share in the Cypriot market.

“We would love to collaborate with local universities and build an R&D team in Cyprus. We are also looking to recruit local talents and build a delivery centre based out of Cyprus to serve European clients.

On the other hand, we are also aiming to raise Series B funds and to invest in our global growth – foot-print expansion, with the creation of sales offices and SME hubs over North America, Europe, and the GCC. We will set up local representation in leading markets. And we want to build local sales expertise targeting Cypriot banks, central bank and financial services” Nasr told the Cyprus Mail.

The company’s innovative work has been recognised for its quality and innovation and has won awards such as the “Young Creative Entrepreneur” from the British Council and the “Nokia Champions” by Nokia.

In addition to the innovative edge of the company, Elie and Ghady have built a team which markets to the entire value chain by working on the front end as well as all the back end of the fintech solutions. Given that all the development is performed internally, the company provides customised solutions based on the clients’ needs.