Syrian diaspora investors emerge as the bridge between global capital and post-Assad reconstruction

A year and a half after the fall of the Assad regime, the capital beginning to flow into Syria’s economy is moving largely through one channel: The Syrian diaspora. Syrians abroad — pairing international capital-markets experience with on-the-ground local knowledge — have become the connective tissue between Gulf and Western money and a market still short on legal certainty, banking connectivity, and the enforceable guarantees that institutional investors demand.

These investors are building compliance-driven, often US-structured vehicles through which money actually moves. With that structure, they’re able to turn a market once written off as implausible into a (very) early-stage opportunity, even as institutional capital waits on the sidelines.

What looks interesting right now? Investors from the Gulf, Europe (which has been workingto bring Syria in from the cold), the US, and the diaspora are kicking the tires on opportunities in logistics, F&B, infrastructure, and the rebuilding of Syrian industry. All of this is what one investor admits is an “early transition market,” where interest is rising but still largely exploratory.

The early money has largely been Saudi and Qatari… Doha-listed Estithmar Holding reached an agreement in late April to acquire 49% of Syria’s Shahba Bank, but most of the commitments so far are broad promises with plenty of political motivation: A promise of USD 2 bn in infrastructure investments from Saudi’s Elaf Investment Fund, STC signaling it could commit nearly USD 1 bn to a range of telecom and AI infrastructure, and Qatar’s UTC saying it could co-invest as much as USD 4 bn alongside Turkish investors, also in infrastructure. UAE money was also circling last year, but it’s unclear how much that appetite has survived the outbreak of war in the Gulf.

…all of that is early stage — and the diaspora is now starting to bridge the gap: Diaspora Syrians act as “bridges between external investors and the Syrian market,” Damascus-based Rafik Habbal, who founded Syrian Business Gateway in August 2025, tells EnterpriseAM. Some nationals are investing directly, while others facilitate partnerships and advisory work, he says.

It’s a familiar story: Folks in the diaspora with exposure to international markets are helping create the right environment to bring capital into Syria. Syrian-American investor Joey Laham, who left Damascus 32 years ago and built his career in private investment between New York and Miami, embodies that model. He founded the Syrian Holding Company to mobilize private capital into Syria and says he has used it to raise more than USD 1.5 bn. Laham also helped facilitate one of the first US-linked energy deals into the country, involving Chevron. Habbal, meanwhile, spent years in international NGOs including the World Health Organization before founding Syrian Business Gateway, and now uses that experience to position his platform as a structured point of entry.

For some, it’s been years in the making: “I’ve witnessed all of the crisis and all of the conflict. I’ve always dreamt about my country to be similar to more stable business environments,” Habbal tells us. After years of trying — and failing — to build something in that direction, he said the concept only became viable after the regime changed. “When the old regime fell, I started to revive all of the ideas and memories I had in my mind.”

Compliance and structure are the real gateway

There are pockets of appetite out there, but the binding constraint is more how the capital moves — investors are focused on ensuring they operate through regulated, carefully structured vehicles. Laham runs US private-investment firm Wyndham Wealth, which he describes as the compliance and structuring backbone that lets Gulf and American investors participate under US regulatory standards: “My investors will not invest unless it’s an American entity with American compliance.”

Habbal sells the same discipline at the entry level, moving investors into projects “in a more organized, compliant, and risk-aware way.” For strategist Jafar Ibrahim, who works with the Syrian investment conglomerate Wahoud Group, structure means navigating the state itself: “We work on how to interact — whether this goes to the Energy Ministry, the Syrian Investment Authority, or the Council of Ministers. Or is this a presidential decision?”

Re-engagement reset the baseline

The Trump administration’s newfound openness to engaging with Syria through Gulf partners has helped open the door for some would-be investors based in the west. During a visit to Riyadh a year ago, US President Donald Trump held talks with Syria’s new leadership on reconstruction and sanctions relief — diplomacy that reframed a market Laham had long dismissed.

Laham was part of that visit, where he found himself discussing reconstruction investments with the Syrian president. “President Ahmed Al Sharaa told me, ‘Look, the Qataris are very heavily in right now and the sovereign wealth funds of the GCC are coming in, but it’s going to take time. We’re learning a lot from the US and the US is playing a big role right now in compliance,’” Laham recalls.

“The biggest thing is the re-engagement with the international community. We are seeing Syria at Davos, in Washington, people coming to Syria,” Wahoud Group’s Ibrahim tells us.

Early flows are real, if modest: Capital is beginning to move on the ground. SBG has helped facilitate more than USD 80 mn in deployed Syrian capital this year, with a further USD 240 mn in the pipeline across industry, F&B, and franchises, Habbal says. The through-line, Ibrahim argues, is that execution is possible and that “it is ultimately Syrian capital and Syrian talent that sit at the core of getting things done on the ground.”

For now, an execution gap is the defining feature of the market: Symbolic momentum has outpaced execution on the ground, and the gap sorts investors into tiers: Politically-backed capital, opportunistic entrants, and institutional players still waiting for guarantees. “The people that are moving in Syria are the first two,” Ibrahim says. “Institutional investors are still waiting.” Even real estate, he notes, depends less on sector appeal than on legal certainty, banking connectivity, and enforceable guarantees.

“It’s not quite helpful to give an image of a comfortable environment for all stakeholders,” Habbal agrees. But that uncertainty, he suggests, is also what makes the moment decisive: “There is work for everyone.” As Ibrahim puts it: “I am passionate about investment in Syria, but I want to remain a realist.”