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Amal, from Beirut to Toronto, on a Start-up Visa that almost did not happen

Three rounds of designated-organisation rejections, one second opinion, and a finished IPO.

Amal, from Beirut to Toronto, on a Start-up Visa that almost did not happen

Amal Khoury arrived in Toronto in 2022 with a Start-up Visa, a co-founder, and a fintech idea aimed at remittance corridors between Canada and Lebanon. Today the company employs forty people and floated on the TSX last quarter.

What is rarely told is the eighteen months before arrival. Three designated organisations declined to support the project. The fourth — after a complete pivot of the business plan and a new pitch deck written line by line with our Montréal desk — agreed.

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