Israel is home to a dynamic fintech ecosystem with global reach and traction. In 2021, Israeli-founded fintech startups raised a record of US$4.5 billion, surpassing the three previous years combined, a report by Viola Group, a leading tech-focused investment firm headquartered in Israel, shows. Soaring funding activity and increasing deal sizes suggest that the sector is maturing and continues to attract investors’ interest.
Besides globally recognized brands like Rapyd, Next and Melio, there’s a multitude of smaller fast-growing fintech players that are emerging out of Israel. These companies have experienced massive growth over the past year, received backing from renowned startup investors, and are now poised for further growth. Today, we look at eight of these rising fintech stars from Israel.
Gaviti
Founded in 2018, Gaviti provides a platform that aims to optimize the collections process, from automating highly personalized dunning emails to perfecting task management.
The system maps out the collection process to spot inefficiencies and optimize clients’ procedures. It integrates with any online accounting software to import client data and updates in real time. Its dashboard provides insightful analytics, displays an up-to-date aging report, and increases visibility for everyone on the finance and sales teams.
Gaviti serves small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are in B2B services, manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, technology, transportation and logistics and more. The company claims to have helped its clients recover a total of US$6.2 billion in accounts receivables in 2021 by optimizing and streamlining the collections process.
Gaviti closed a US$9 million Series A in April and is featured among Tech in Asia’s top 50 rising startups in Israel.
nSure.ai
Founded in 2019, nSure.ai is an artificial intelligence (AI)-based fraud prevention solution built for sellers of digital goods, focusing on high-risk digital domains, such as prepaid and gaming. The platform relies on tailored auto-ML models which collect and analyze data in real time, enabling nSure.ai to provide revenue assurance and chargeback guarantees.
The company, which is backed by AXA, aims to help retailers reduce decline rates, increase revenue, and improve customer satisfaction. It claims to be able to reduce declines by about 70% compared to industry average, thus allowing retailers to recapture nearly US$100 billion a year in revenue lost by declining legitimate customers in these domains.
nSure.ai raised US$18 million in a Series A in March after recording a 500% increase in revenue in just over a year. The startup is featured among Tech in Asia’s top 50 rising startups in Israel.
Justt
Founded in 2020, Justt, formerly known as AcroCharge, is the developer of a chargeback mitigation platform designed to use automatic AI technology to fight illegitimate chargebacks. Using machine learning (ML) and deep domain-specific expertise, Justt flags incorrect chargebacks, and builds tailored solutions to gather and submit evidence on a merchant’s behalf.
The company claims it is able to help merchants re-capture between 60% to 80% of their credit card disputes lost from illegitimate chargebacks, and says it handles over 10,000 chargeback disputes each month for some of its customers.
The startup closed a US$70 million funding round in November 2021 after experiencing rapid growth over a 12 month period with annual recurring revenue (ARR) growing 20% month-over-month and headcount increasing more than 25-fold to more than 110 employees.
Justt is featured among Tech in Asia’s top 50 rising startups in Israel.
Unit
Founded in 2019, Unit is a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform that allows companies to build banking into their products. It focuses on accelerating time to market, enabling businesses to launch bank accounts, cards, payment, and lending products in weeks.
Unit reached unicorn status this year after closing a US$100 million Series C in May. The fundraising came on the back of accelerated growth witnessed over the prior year during which it was able to win more than 140 customers including AngelList, HoneyBook, Homebase, Veryable, Roofstock, Hearth, and Benepass.
In the span of six months, Unit said it had issued over 430,000 cards to over 330,000 end-customers. Deposit volumes grow tenfold and transaction volume grow sevenfold, crossing an annualized transaction volume of US$2.6 billion.
Unit has dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and New York City.
Personetics
Founded in 2011, Personetics is a fintech software company headquartered in Tel Aviv. Personetics provides an engagement platform uses AI to analyze a bank’s customer transaction data in real-time to understand customer financial behavior, anticipate customer needs and deliver a hyper-personalized experience.
The platform is used by big banks aiming to modernize their services. Personetics claims a client base of more than 80 global financial institutions spanning 30 global markets and which combine a total of 120 million bank customers. It says its customers see an increase of up to 35% in digital customer engagement, a 20% increase in account and balance growth, and a 17% increase in the adoption of personalized product recommendations and advice.
The company secured more than US$160 million in 2021 to accelerate its global expansion.
DataRails
Founded in 2015, DataRails is a financial planning and analysis platform for Excel users. The solution automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
The platform helps organizations have more control over their spreadsheets, making them verifiable and trusted, enabling collaboration and regulatory compliance, and helping users obtain new levels of data analysis and efficiency from their existing Excel spreadsheets.
DataRails completed a US$50 million Series B in March after reporting that revenue had risen fivefold over the prior year. ARR is approaching US$10 million, according to estimates.
Balance
Founded in 2020, Balance is a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce payment platform built for marketplaces and sellers.
Balance allows merchants to process any payment method, offer flexible terms, and get paid instantly, all in one place. The platform put an emphasis on B2B specificities including full vendor payout, zero-touch vendor onboarding, full payout control, escrow capabilities, and get-a-quote flow with vendor control.
Balance secured a US$56 million Series B in July. The company says it is working with hundreds of merchants and dozens of B2B marketplaces, a tenfold increase since last year.
RiseUp
Founded in 2017, RiseUp is the developer of a fintech platform designed to help Israeli families manage their cashflow and make informed financial decisions. The platform analyzes a user’s spending data to predict future transactions, generates a snapshot of their financial situation, and sends it to the customer via WhatsApp. Customers can also ask any financial question over WhatsApp and receive a personalized response from a human expert aided by smart chatbots.
The company says it has helped customers save more than US$1.24 million so far, with an average monthly saving of US$136 per customer.
RiseUp closed a US$30 million Series B in April which it said it would use to further develop its money-saving digital platform and expand its global activities.
Featured image credit: Edited from Unsplash
