So its time to tell you what I've been up to (apart from Middle East Stablecoin Association - MESA. and Digital Money Association work). I've been in stablecoins for nearly five years. I've seen them mature and seen them transform financial services. They are truly a payment innovation and for years cross-border remittance has been called the product-market fit. That has nagged me for years. They are easy to send but hard to receive where people most need them. The people who needed this better money most had no means to access it. Many can't afford smartphones let alone the data, and many are unbanked: hundreds of millions of people across MENA and South Asia, all served by the worst rails: slow, expensive, and with no record of where the money went. How can we help them and the governments, aid agencies and corporates that want to pay them especially in countries rebuilding like Syria? So earlier this year, after a conversation during Ramadan, I started building a solution with Faris Sibai. It's called Saleem (سليم). I know how regulated digital money is issued, held and settled. Faris knows how a product is positioned and distributed in the markets where access is the problem. The rail needs both. Saleem is payment infrastructure for institutions. An aid agency, a ministry, an employer or a bank pays from its treasury; the money lands on the phone the recipient already has, a basic handset included, with or without a bank account. We have spent this year building rather than talking. The platform is built and demonstrable, pre-launch. We are developing our first corridors, the Levant and Pakistan from the Gulf, working through licensed and distribution partnerships, and beginning conversations around our first external funding round. We are part of the Stellar Development Foundation x CV Labs Accelerator, cohort 2026 and look forward to presenting at the Meridian conference in Lisbon next month. I'll be at the Jordan Fintech Festival this week so get in touch. If you have a programme, a payroll or a corridor that fits, let's talk. And if you want to follow what we build, the company will post its progress here on LinkedIn and on X: Saleem (سليم) ·X @saleempay · www.saleem.digital Thank you to all those people that have been supporting us on this journey. Those who took a call, opened a door, or suggested how we could improve. You're helping us build better, faster. Brenton Naicker Francesca J. C. Jordan Burgess Shaun Johnson Omar Hamwi, MBA, ex-World Bank Paul Wong
Focusing on the receiving side is the right call—issuance was never the bottleneck. Getting payouts to a basic handset in fragile markets is where licensed rails and compliant settlement/account infrastructure matter most. Are the first corridors leaning more on cash-out networks or regulated e-money accounts for the last mile?
The receiving side tends to be the weak point in cross-border payments, so this is a solid focus. Institutional payers need that last-mile access to make stablecoin rails practical.
Congrats on going public with Saleem, Ramy. When an aid agency or employer pays thousands of people from one treasury wallet, who got paid and how much is readable by anyone, and in fragile markets that is a real safety issue for recipients. Hinkal keeps those payouts private, single or in batches, while funders and regulators still get the full history on request. Would you be curious to explore how this could fit Saleem's first corridors?
Love the tag line! 🙌🏻 Massive congrats, officially! 🎉 You are pioneering and trailblazing and no doubt this will be a tremendous success. Privileged to be part of the journey. 🚀
Congratulations Ramy
Best of luck, Ramy and Faris 🍀
Huge, Ramy - wishing you the very best for this incredible mission. Congrats on the start…looking forward to hearing about progress!
Institutional payers need that last mile more than another issuance rail, so this focus makes sense. The basic handset requirement is the operational detail that will decide whether it scales.