In the international FinTech ecosystems picture, Israel’ FinTech ecosystem attracts significant attention as one that’s growing at an outstanding pace.
Based on a report from Let’s Talk Payments;
Israel is widely considered to be home to more startups per capita than any other region globally and ranks highly in the startup ecosystem league rankings just behind Silicon Valley.
Israel has been at a center of interest of major financial institutions like Visa. Last year, Visa Europe announced the launch of Visa Europe Collab in Israel. Following the launch of Visa Europe Collab in London on May 1, Visa Europe Collab in Israel continues the mission of working with startups, entrepreneurs and partners to develop products and services that aim to transform the payments experience for consumers.
David Page, Co-Creator and Innovation Partner at Visa Europe Collab, commented, “Israel is known as the ‘startup nation’ and its entrepreneurs are turning their creativity to the FinTech arena. Four Israeli companies – Zooz, Prontoly, PayItSimple and MyCheck – have already entered the Visa Europe Collab innovation pipeline and more fresh and exciting concepts are coming through the door every day.”
Another major player, PayPal, announced the setup of a new security center in Israel as one of the world’s top cybersecurity hubs last year. The new security center is aimed to help the company to tap into the country’s cutting-edge technology and top cybersecurity talent. The creation of the security center is an extension of the capabilities that PayPal has already developed through the success of its Fraud and Risk Detection Center in Tel Aviv.
Israel has set a notable record – it is the largest exporter of cyber-products after the US. Israeli companies exported $6 billion (USD) in cyber-related products and services in 2014. The latest data from Israel’s National Cyber Bureau (NCB) shows a surge in cyber exports from US $3 billion in 2013 to $6 billion in 2014. According to NCB, this figure constitutes about 10% of the estimated $60 billion global cyber market.
As global investments in the FinTech industry rapidly grow month by month, the Israeli FinTech ecosystem has some very interesting and promising FinTech companies operating in the country.
Israeli FinTech Companies
Here are some of talented FinTech companies in Israel:
Cellarix provides payments and funds transfer solution to enable payments anywhere and anytime.
CurrencyTransfer is an online marketplace matching individuals and businesses with the best international payment quotes.
MyCheck is a mobile application that enables users to split and pay bills for goods and services through their mobile devices.
Thumzap is a payments solution for parents that offers a safe, secure and responsible way to pay for the things their children want to purchase online.
Tapingo is a mobile shopping platform that targets busy consumers in dense retail environments by combining contextually-aware native apps with easy operational integration at local shops.
Forter enables online retailers to drive incremental revenue by creating a completely frictionless, fraud-free environment.
TravelersBox offers leftover foreign currency exchange at the airports by converting exchanged funds directly to e-wallets, gift cards and more.
BillGuard is a personal finance analytics application and a subsidiary of Prosper Marketplace.
Ezbob offers a smart lending platform to provide fast, flexible and convenient source of credit to entrepreneurs looking to expand their business.
Fundbox leverages deep data analytics to accelerate cash flow and clear invoices for small businesses.
eLoan.co.il is the first Israeli P2P lending platform.
BlueVine is an invoice factoring company founded with a simple goal—to help small businesses overcome their short-term cash flow challenges.
eToro is a social trading and investment marketplace allowing users to trade currencies, commodities, indices and stocks.
CorrSight is a real-time analytic vendor that provides FX and binary options brokers proven solutions for higher conversion rates, larger trading volumes and improved in customer retention.
Tradeo is a social trading network that provides members the freedom to analyze the trades of fellow users.
GetStocks is an online brokerage designed to make stock trading accessible to everyone.
Tradency is a pure technology company that focuses on innovative trading solutions for financial institutions.
BondIT is an expert developer and provider of proprietary comprehensive analytical solutions for global fixed-income markets.
Leverate provides cutting-edge technological solutions for FX & CFD brokerages.
Bitrated provides fraud prevention and consumer protection mechanisms for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Spondoolies-Tech is focused on building mining rigs for cryptocurrency.
Zooz is a technology company which provides a payments platform designed to help merchants maximize their payments performance.
Simplex enables cryptocurrencies exchanges to accept credit cards at no chargeback risk.
Colu allows fast access to blockchain technology infrastructure with a full end-to-end, ready-to-use solution.
Credorax provides online payment processing and acquiring bank services for a diverse range of online merchants.
BioCatch provides a behavioral authentication and threat detection solutions for the Web and mobile applications.
I Am Real enables platforms to validate the true identities of their users in a short time using their social graph and video verification.
AU10TIX develops and implements solutions that automate the capture, authentication, validation and generation of digital records of identifying documents such as passports, identity cards, driving licenses etc.
Hermetic builds the foundations for keeping valuable assets easily accessible to their owners, yet out of reach of the most sophisticated hackers.
eRated creates a single identity for e-commerce sites, allowing online buyers and sellers to utilize their already existing reputation everywhere they go.
Personetics offers a predictive interaction solution for financial institutions to deliver personalized customer experiences.
Jon Medved, the Founder and CEO of OurCrowd (an equity-crowdfunding platform that has invested in several Israeli FinTech startups) commented that “Israel has an innovative and well-managed financial sector. Our banks were some of the few banks in the world that were not badly damaged in the 2008 global financial crisis. Israeli finance people often have a global set of experiences having worked both in New York, Europe, and now increasingly in Asia. Therefore, it is not surprising that with this financial background and the entrepreneurial spirit of (a) ‘Startup Nation’ that Israel will develop a robust FinTech sector.”
Israel’s Fintech industry has grown from 90 companies in 2002 to over 430 FinTech companies and 14 multinational R&D centers in 2016.
Israel Trade and Economic Commission in Sydney, Australia 