Most promising Israeli startups: 4 fintech companies to watch in 2024
This month Calcalist published its annual list of the Top 50 Most Promising Israeli Startups. One sector that continued to thrive was fintech. As one of the most essential sectors in Israel, Fintech continued to show just what Israeli companies can do to help banks, companies, and customers around the world.
Sector: AI-based cloud | Established: 2018 | Founders: Lior Yogev, Yaniv Zecharya, and Uri Katz | Employees: 120 in Israel, Great Britain, Canada, and the USA | Funding: $150 million from Key1 Capital, Euclidean Capital, Hamilton Lane, Blumberg Capital, Team8, Citi, State Street
The founders of FundGuard have created a platform for managing mutual funds, ETFs, and insurance products, convincing financial institutions to replace their outdated systems. The founders of FundGuard – Lior Yogev (CEO), Yaniv Zecharya (CTO), and Uri Katz (VP R&D) – opted not to embark on the challenging path of the fintech industry and establish yet another company focusing on payments. Instead, they chose to establish an infrastructure company for the mutual fund industry. This is a challenging field to develop technology for, and it is even more challenging to sell a product to financial institutions that tend to be very conservative when it comes to their technological infrastructures. The systems built by FundGuard replace outdated systems installed in most banks that cannot meet these challenges. The company’s technology enables the identification of problems and failures, providing practical insights to improve management while facilitating operational efficiency and dramatically reducing financial institutions’ expenses.
Sector: Fintech | Established: 2018 | Founders: Roey Dor and Omri Dor | Funding: $55 million from 83North, HighSage Ventures, 10D, Entrée Capital, and MUFG
Using open banking and AI, Obligo powers a trusted and streamlined rental experience that allows qualified renters to skip paying a security deposit, and instead use it to save, invest, or spend. Obligo provides landlords and property managers the ability to maintain full protection, lower their overhead, and offer an appealing amenity for renters. As the industry’s deposit-free software partner of choice, Obligo can be easily embedded in property management and financial services software. Obligo harnesses AI, machine learning, and historical lease outcome data to produce a simple, short and transparent renter qualification process. The simplest way to qualify is to connect a bank account via open banking. Obligo looks at several key metrics from the renter’s bank account history to instantly determine if it meets the qualification criteria for deposit-free living. If a renter does not qualify by connecting their bank account, Obligo pinpoints the reason and offers alternate paths to qualification.Obligo’s mission is to power the rental experience of the future and build trust between renters and landlords through financial technology. As the first security deposit alternative utilizing bank-issued Letters of Credit supported by Wells Fargo, Obligo uses open banking and AI to determine renters’ eligibility to rent deposit-free. Founded in 2018 by brothers Roey Dor and Omri Dor, Obligo has raised more than $50 million and is looking to bring its industry-changing rental solutions to millions of homes across the United States.
Sector: Fintech | Established: 2021 | Founders: Benjamin Avraham | Employees: 100 | Funding: Bootstrapped
Okoora provides advanced solutions to streamline cross-border financial processes and reduce currency risk for organizations of all sizes. Okoora is an automated currency management platform designed to help businesses plan, execute, and manage global financial transactions with the help of artificial intelligence. The company has developed the ABCM, an enterprise-grade platform for planning, executing, and managing global financial transactions in over 100 currencies while simplifying currency management by unifying all tasks, services, and transactions over an intuitive financial infrastructure. Okoora, established in 2021 by Benjamin Avraham, the founder of Ofakim Group, an Israel-based financial risk management firm, currently boasts a committed team of 100 professionals across Israel, Switzerland, Germany, and India. With sights set on further European expansion, Okoora is gearing up to expand its workforce, aiming to bolster its operational capacity and provide outstanding service to its growing clientele.
Sector: Fintech | Established: 2020 | Founders: Matan Fattal and Doron Passov | Funding: $25 million from Insight Partners, Cardumen Capital, Citi Ventures, and Team8
IVIX offers a platform designed for tax authorities to enhance audit efficiency and boost tax revenue. By transforming publicly available business activity data into precise leads using modern algorithms, IVIX aids in pinpointing potential tax evasions. This allows tax authorities to allocate their resources more effectively, elevate collection rates, and foster deterrence in the digital economy. IVIX’s technology leverages publicly available data to equip tax authorities with insights into the shadow economy so they can address tax evasion at scale. The company was founded in 2020 by CEO Matan Fattal and CPO Doron Passov, both with experience in elite intelligence units. Fattal served in the renowned unit 8200 and was a founder and CEO of Sliverfort, which he left in 2020. Passov served in the IDF’s unit 81 and was a senior product manager at Gita Technologies. IVIX is currently used by major government agencies around the world, including the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division and multiple states’ tax authorities in the U.S. The company has attracted top talent and expertise, including former IRS Chief of Criminal Investigation John D. (Don) Fort as Chief Business Officer and tax industry veteran Deborah Pianko as North America Director of Sales.
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