The Fintech Revolution Has Yet to Occur, Says Capitolis CEO

The fintech revolution has yet to occur, according to Gil Mandelzis, the CEO of fintech startup Capitolis Inc. Mandelzis spoke Wednesday at Calcalist's annual Capital Markets conference, held in collaboration with BDO and Psagot Investment House in Tel Aviv.

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The financial crisis of 2008 led financial regulators across the world to realize there needs to be a big institutional change, that all big banks need to reduce their size substantially, and raised the capital requirements of banks, Mandelzis said. As such, Capitolis aims to create a separation between a bank’s capital and its services, Mandelzis said. “We do this in conjunction with the largest banks,” he said, “not as foes.” The company lists Citigroup and HSBC Holdings plc as customers.

"The big hotel chains were also the owners of all of their hotels, and they were responsible for the management and maintenance of each individual hotel. Then, the industry underwent a revolution and a separation was made between the management and the ownership,” Mandelzis said. “Today, if one of the large chains wants to open a new hotel, it can join a local entrepreneur who will take care of the management on-the-ground. This is what we aim to do with the largest banks in the world,” Mandelzis said.

Capitolis was founded in 2017 by Mandelzis, the former CEO of electronic trading technology company EBS BrokerTec (now NEX Markets) and founder of software company Traiana, and by Chairman Tom Glocer, the former CEO of Thomson Reuters. Capitolis currently employs 25 people and has raised $29 million to date, according to Pitchbook data.