Building for global markets from Beirut

As governments and businesses seek to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency, and adapt to evolving energy demands, a growing market has emerged for technologies that help organizations better understand and manage environmental performance. According to the International Energy Agency's Global Energy Review 2026, global electricity demand grew by around 3 percent in 2025, more than twice the rate of overall energy demand, with the buildings sector accounting for nearly 45 percent of the increase in electricity consumption.

That demand has fueled a new generation of companies developing digital tools and engineering solutions that help businesses improve building performance, lower operating costs, and navigate evolving regulatory requirements. Many have emerged from established technology hubs such as Silicon Valley, London, Paris, and Singapore. Terra Instinct, however, has taken a different approach. Although the company's clients are primarily investment funds and property owners across Europe, much of the technology and analysis underpinning its work is developed in Beirut.

The decision was not driven by the Lebanese market. Terra Instinct's clients remain primarily investment funds, property owners, and institutions across Europe. Instead, founder Harry Briggs saw something else in Lebanon: a deep pool of talent capable of building products and solving complex problems for international customers. At a time when discussions about Lebanon's economy often focus on crisis and instability, the company's experience suggests that Lebanon's greatest asset may lie not in the size of its market, but in its ability to build globally competitive businesses through its human capital.

Looking beyond London

Briggs founded Terra Instinct in 2022 after working in sustainability consulting and renewable energy projects. His central insight was that environmental goals alone were rarely enough to drive adoption.

“If we're going to make meaningful progress on climate or sustainability, it has to make financial sense,” he said.

If you can tap into capitalism and align incentives correctly, the growth will happen at scale.

As the business expanded, Briggs faced a challenge familiar to many founders: finding enough highly skilled employees to support growth.

“I always knew we'd eventually need to build outside London because I couldn't hire the level of talent I wanted at a competitive cost,” Briggs said. In London, he explained, the competition for skilled workers included major employers such as Goldman Sachs and McKinsey.

The answer ultimately emerged from an unexpected source. Shortly after founding the company, Briggs hired a Lebanese employee who repeatedly encouraged him to visit Beirut. In January 2023, he did.

Finding talent in Beirut

What Briggs expected to be a fact-finding visit became a turning point for the company. During his time in Beirut, he began to see the city's talent pool not simply as an alternative to London, but as the foundation for Terra Instinct's next stage of growth.

The impression he formed during that first visit has only strengthened over time.

“When we advertise a job here, we'll get 150 to 200 applications days, and they're all incredible,” Briggs said.

There are excellent universities producing highly capable graduates every year.

According to the World Bank's Spring 2025 Lebanon Economic Monitor, rebuilding Lebanon's economy will depend in part on preserving its human capital. Universities including the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University and Saint Joseph University continue to produce graduates in engineering, business, computer science and related fields.

That talent has become one of the company's defining strengths.

Today, Terra Instinct employs roughly 12 people in Lebanon and has largely wound down its London operation, with engineers and analysts in Beirut developing products and delivering services for clients across Europe.

Challenging perceptions

For many of Terra Instinct's clients, learning that much of the company's work is carried out from Beirut comes as a surprise. The reaction, however, is rarely negative.

At a recent real estate conference in the United Kingdom, Briggs found himself describing Beirut to an architect whose perception of the city differed sharply from the reality he had experienced.

“You could see from the look on his face that he simply couldn't reconcile what I was describing with what he thought Beirut was,” Briggs said.

There's a massive disconnect in people's understanding of Lebanon. But the reaction to the company being based in Beirut is generally curiosity rather than pushback.

For Briggs, those conversations underscore a broader perception gap surrounding Lebanon. International coverage of the country frequently focuses on political instability, economic collapse, and conflict.

While those realities are an unavoidable part of the country's recent history, they can also obscure an entrepreneurial ecosystem that continues to secure investment, showcase its work at major international technology conferences, and build products for customers around the world. Although Lebanon's technology sector remains smaller than those of regional hubs such as Dubai or Riyadh, it continues to draw on the country's multilingual workforce, well-established universities, and extensive international networks.

Beyond the talent itself, Briggs said Lebanon's workplace culture has also influenced how he thinks about building a company.

“The culture creates a level of authenticity,” he said.

There's not the sort of hyper-competitive environment you might expect. It's much more collaborative.

Building through uncertainty

Building a company in Lebanon also means navigating a level of uncertainty that many founders elsewhere never have to consider.

Briggs formally established the Beirut office in 2023 but only relocated permanently at the end of 2025. That meant experiencing the recent conflict not as an outside observer but alongside his employees.

The experience changed how he thought about leadership.

“That's been a learning curve for me and has made me think much more carefully about how we support the team through situations like that,” he said.

You can make sure people are physically safe, but that doesn't mean they're emotionally okay.

Those experiences reinforced his commitment to remaining in Lebanon despite the risks. Briggs said that while business leaders must make difficult commercial decisions, they also have a responsibility to the people who have helped build their companies.

Terra Instinct's clients may be in London, Stockholm, or Riyadh, but much of the expertise supporting them is being developed in Beirut. One company does not make Lebanon a global technology hub, nor is Terra Instinct representative of the country's entire startup ecosystem.

It does, however, offer a reminder that at a moment when Lebanon is often discussed in terms of what it has lost, the country still possesses one resource in abundance: talent capable of competing in global markets.