From March Israeli attacks on Beirut and the occupation of southern Lebanon displaced over 1 million people. There are families shelter with loved onesrenting when possible, or sleeping in cars and outdoors, putting enormous strain on already breakable infrastructure. According to a report by the International Organization for Migration, more than 130,000 people have also entered Syria, with many of them in urgent need of food, cash assistance and shelter.
As humanitarian needs grow, so does the inflow of money from abroad. However, much of this support is not delivered through customary aid channels. Instead, it is directed via digital fintech platforms to trusted people on the ground who buy vital items or provide funds directly to displaced people.
There is no real-time dataset of donations specifically related to the war. But remittances – the closest proxy available – offer context. Lebanon receives approximately $6-7 billion per year from abroad, equivalent to about one third of its GDP, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2023.
UNDP reported that the cost of remittances in the country averages 11 percent, which is higher than the global average. In times of crisis, these flows often divert towards emergency support. Now the way this money moves is different: increasingly, it is sent instantly, peer-to-peer, via digital wallets.
“These informal inflows are included in official BDL data and account for approximately 70 percent of inflows during the crisis,” UNDP added, noting that the money is often sent in cash to people traveling to the country.
From gift cards to financial infrastructure
As a Lebanese myself, my social media channels were flooded with former colleagues and friends setting up their channels to receive donations, sharing pictures of their bills and showing where the money was going.
One of the grassroots campaigns led by Lebanese lawyer Jad Essayli was raised $65,125 in 10 daysexclusively via social media and digital transfers. When asked which platforms have made the biggest impact, he and other fundraisers pointed out I wish you moneyalthough many other platforms are also used, including Paypal, Zelle, and Venmo.
Originally founded to digitize gift cards, the company has evolved into a broad financial platform offering money transfers, peer-to-peer transfers and payment services with over 2 million users in 110 countries. “We started out wanting to disrupt the distribution of gift cards,” says Toufic Koussa, co-founder and president of Whish Money, describing how in 2007 the company created an early wallet system that allowed retailers to issue digital cards on demand. Over time, this infrastructure has grown into a full financial ecosystem.
When banks stop working
The company focused mainly on people who did not have a bank account and were underbanked – that is, with restricted or unreliable access to customary banking. These groups played a key role during Lebanon’s financial collapse. Globally, 1.4 billion people remain unbanked; The World Bank states that access to affordable financial services is “crucial to poverty reduction and economic growth.”
In Lebanon, as banks froze deposits and restricted withdrawals, platforms like Whish Money filled a critical gap, enabling people to move and access money outside the customary system.
This infrastructure now shapes the way aid is delivered in crisis situations. Money from family, diaspora or grassroots campaigns goes directly into your digital wallet and can be spent immediately. At Whish Money, peer-to-peer transfers are the most popular, followed by international transfers. Koussa also notes that Whish Money is uniquely connected to the U.S. banking infrastructure, allowing users to connect their accounts abroad directly to their wallets in Lebanon.
Displacement is changing the way people utilize these platforms. Overall growth is steady, but transaction patterns have changed. As uncertainty grows, families are making larger purchases to stock up on vital items. Koussa says grocery bills that could have been $200 are now rising as people prepare for the worst.