“There is an increase in sophistication and a depth of understanding of fintech in Israel”

“I think there are two main drivers to what we're seeing in Israeli fintech,” explained Hadar Siterman Norris, Partner at Team8 Capital, in an interview with CTech. “One is that there is an increase in sophistication and a depth of understanding of fintech in Israel. It comes from both sides: the founders and the VCs. The reason it is happening for the founders’ side is two-fold: One is the fact that global companies such as Mastercard, Amazon, Shopify, and Wix are present in Israel and people who work with these companies get a first-hand experience looking at the full value chain and understanding what works and where there is room for innovation and disruption.”

The second reason is, unsurprisingly, the fallout from the pandemic. “Corona contributed to it by bringing a lot of folks that have worked outside of Israel, in some cases for fintech companies, back to Israel both with the professional knowledge as well as the cultural knowledge of what it takes to make it in global markets.”

According to Siterman Norris, the VC side also has wisdom that has accumulated over the last few years. “On the VC side, we are also seeing it. Five years ago, the understanding of fintech and what it takes to be successful in fintech was in a very different place to where it is now,” she added.

You can watch the entire exchange in the video above.