Monty Holding
Most people wait for a market to prove itself before they enter it. Mountasser Hachem has built his career doing the opposite: moving into markets others overlook, often before the opportunity is obvious.
He started from one office in Beirut, building interactive television channels that viewers wrote into by text message. That was nearly three decades ago. Today, Monty Holding spans telecom, fintech, payments, infrastructure, investment, media and services, with a presence across 20 countries and reach into more than 200 markets.
The pattern has not changed much since that first room. He has repeatedly gone where the problem looked bigger than the opportunity: telecom markets where an unknown company from Beirut had to fight for credibility, a national mobile operator buried in debt, financial services built in the middle of a banking crisis, and telecom infrastructure the group chose to build rather than continue buying from established vendors.
Each time, the instinct has been similar: move early, understand the problem from the inside, build what is missing and stay for the long term.
Born in Beirut and shaped by years spent in Nigeria, Hachem encountered different markets and ways of doing business long before Monty became international. That experience still shows in how he approaches unfamiliar territory: get close to the market, operate locally and never assume that what works in one country will work in the next.
Monty Mobile, the group's largest business, now operates through 15 regional offices and delivers services across more than 200 countries. What began behind the scenes in messaging has grown into infrastructure used by operators, enterprises and digital platforms around the world.
He could have stopped building in Lebanon years ago. He did not. Beirut remains part of the story: not simply where the business began, but a market in which he continues to build.
Founder and Chairman
Key Figures
Explore Ventures
Lounge Bar & Members Business Club
Mobile Operator
Advisory & Investment
Banking
Payments
eSIM
Telecom
Ticketing
Telecom Solutions
E-Com Development Agency
Neobanking
Fintech
Restaurant
Property Management
Private Jet Experience
Emergency Response
Lounge Bar & Members Business Club
Mobile Operator
Advisory & Investment
Banking
Payments
eSIM
Telecom
Ticketing
Telecom Solutions
E-Com Development Agency
Neobanking
Fintech
Restaurant
Property Management
Private Jet Experience
Emergency Response
The Journey
1998
One office in Beirut
It starts with television. A small team building interactive television channels across the Middle East and North Africa. ETV first, followed by MC TV, ETV+, Kamar TV, Maraya TV and Derby TV, carried on Nilesat and Arabsat. Viewers wrote in by text message to get on screen. He was already in the messaging business. He just had not named it yet.
2000
Leaving a business that worked
Text messaging was exploding, and the opportunity was still being underestimated by much of the industry. The television money was coming in every month. He walked away from it anyway. His reasoning has not changed since: if he waited for proof, he would be too late.
2006
Monty Mobile
He bought a GSM licence in the Seychelles and built an international travel SIM on it. The business rebranded as Monty Mobile that year. He calls it the moment his real journey in telecom began.
2008
Earning a seat at the table
Operators do not buy promises; they buy delivery. He signed the early deals on terms that barely paid, just to prove the traffic would land where he said it would. Each delivery made the next conversation easier. The unknown company from Beirut was beginning to earn a place in a global industry.
2010
A small booth in Barcelona
Monty Mobile arrived at Mobile World Congress with a small booth and a young team. It was still proving itself, but the ambition was already international. Year after year, it would return to Barcelona with a bigger booth and vision.
2017
Host of WAS #6
In September, the industry met in Marrakech and Monty Mobile hosted it. The GSMA's Wholesale Agreements and Solutions event brings the world's carriers together under one roof. A company out of Beirut was now holding the door.
2019
From one office to a global network
Twenty-one years after the first office, Monty Mobile was working with more than 700 mobile operators, with hundreds of employees across an expanding international network. What began as a regional outsider had become part of the infrastructure of global telecom.
2021
The Gambia
Comium was a national mobile operator in deep financial trouble. Monty Mobile stepped in, settled outstanding debts and fees, and stabilised the business. More than 150 jobs were preserved. By early 2022, Monty Mobile had assumed full operational management, and its teams delivered Comium's 4G+ transformation in eight months.
Most buyers want a clean asset. He took the problem.
2022
MyMonty goes live
A MyMonty pilot launched in Europe at the start of the year, followed by the wider rollout of Monty Finance's fintech products across Europe and the Middle East. Built out of Beirut, the digital wallet marked a move into financial services designed around markets where access, trust and convenience could not be taken for granted.
2022
MontyPay
MontyPay expanded the group further into payments, giving merchants a way to accept and manage digital payments online and in-store. Its reach would grow across more than fifty countries, serving businesses often underserved by traditional payment providers.
2022
The first direct-to-consumer Monty Mobile product
Until then, Monty Mobile had largely sold to operators and enterprises: long contracts, long relationships and a name most consumers would never see. Monty eSIM changed that.
A traveller opens an app, buys a data bundle and connects without changing a physical SIM. After more than two decades of selling behind the scenes, Monty Mobile was now putting a product directly in the hands of the customer.
2024
WAS #19, Istanbul
Seven years after Marrakech, Monty Mobile hosted the GSMA wholesale community again, this time in Istanbul, bringing together more than 1,500 attendees from across the industry.
The company was no longer trying to earn its place in the room. It was bringing the room together.
2024
Regulated in Dubai
Monty Capital secured a Category 4 licence from the Dubai Financial Services Authority and established its advisory business inside the DIFC.
Advisory work in one of the region's most regulated financial centres is not something you talk your way into. You get audited into it.
2026
Moya, out loud
After three years active in the market, Moya made its first international appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It builds the core-network, radio and infrastructure hardware and software required to launch and operate mobile networks.
For years, Monty Mobile had bought technology from the industry's incumbents. The next step was to build more of that capability inside the group.
2026
Today
From one office in Beirut to a group with a presence across 20 countries and reach into more than 200 markets, with 5,000+ partners, the business now spans telecom, fintech, payments, infrastructure, media, investment and services.
It is still chaired by the man who started it in one room.
If opportunity doesn't knock,
build a door.”
Founder and Chairman
