Israeli Fintechs Are Becoming Global Enterprises

While it is the startup nation of the world, Israel is also fast becoming a fintech hub:

- Mohan

Israel is often named as the ‘startup nation’ of the world. It has over 7000 startups. With a population of just under 9 million, the country has the highest density of startups per capita in the world. These startups are estimated to have generated $4.5 billion of funding in 2016. And 20% of this funding has gone to fintech startups. There are over 500 fintech startups with a cumulative funding of $600 million. The largest number of these fintechs operate in the digital payments segment comprising mobile payments, P2P money transfers and eCommerce with an estimated transaction value of $6 billion in 2017. The sector is poised for an annual growth rate of 10.5% and is expected to have a transaction volume of $8.96 billion by end-2021.

The other two important segments where fintechs are involved are business finance and personal finance. Business finance accounts for $2.5 billion transaction value, with expected annual growth of 21.9%, reaching $5.4 billion by the end of 2021. The business finance segment includes crowd investing, crowd funding and crowd lending. Personal finance accounts for $0.4 billion transaction value, with expected annual growth of 42.0%, reaching $1.8 billion by the end of 2021. The personal finance segment is composed of marketplace lending and robo-advisory.

TECH GROUNDING

Israel, as is well known, has high expertise in technologies like big data analytics, artificial intelligence, block chain and computer vision. Its relatively small size, the large number of startups and its reputation for entrepreneurship renders it to be an ideal testing ground for innovation. The country has a very healthy regulatory practices with regulators like the Bank of Israel and the Commissioner of the Capital Markets, Insurance and Savings (CMIS) playing a crucial role.