Middle East · GDP rank #28

Israel

IL · ILS @ 0.3460/USD

Israel runs a card-mature, bank-dominated retail payments market with one wholesale rail (ZAHAV, the BOI-operated RTGS, fully on ISO 20022 since November 2025) and one retail-instant rail (MASAV Faster Payments) underneath the consumer-facing Bit (Bank Hapoalim) and Pay (Bank Leumi) wallets. Bit alone holds roughly half of P2P value across ~3.3m active users. The Capital Markets Authority issued the country's first shekel-pegged stablecoin authorisation in 2024 and the Bank of Israel's digital-shekel design work hands a launch recommendation to the Governor at end-2026.

Tab 07

Fintech & disruption

Israel's fintech stack is structurally export-oriented — Rapyd, Forter, Riskified, Pagaya, Tipalti and Melio are domestically founded but international by revenue. The domestic market is bank-dominated, with one new licensed digital bank (ONE ZERO, 2022) and one bank-led neobank (Pepper / Leumi). The CMA stablecoin track and BOI's digital-shekel preparation are the two distinct regulatory experiments where Israel sits at the leading edge among comparable economies; 2025 fintech VC normalised post-2022 peak with AI-in-financial-services as the leading subsegment.

Fintech funding · LTM

US$2.1B

USD · May 2025–Apr 2026

Largest unicorn

US$8.75B

Rapyd

Unicorns

Rapyd

US$8.75B

global payments infrastructure

Tel Aviv / London · founded 2016

Rapyd

Forter

US$3.0B

fraud prevention

Tel Aviv / New York · founded 2013

Forter

Pagaya

US$1.1B

credit AI + asset-backed financing (NASDAQ-listed)

Tel Aviv / New York · founded 2016

Pagaya

Riskified

US$1.0B

e-commerce fraud + chargeback (NYSE-listed)

Tel Aviv · founded 2013

Riskified

Funding

Largest disclosed rounds · LTM

Rounds shown are the largest disclosed in the last twelve months. Private markets remain opaque — valuations at follow-on are the most reliable signal of investor conviction.

Round size

Bank Hapoalim (international bond)US$2.0B
Bond issuance · 2026-03-10
ONE ZEROUS$220M
Series C · 2026-04-08

Emerging categories

Shekel-pegged stablecoins (CMA-licensed)

emerging

Bits of Gold (BILS)
USDT (informal)
USDC (informal)

BILS approved March 2024 under CMA two-year sandbox graduation; broader CMA framework in consultation. ISA August 2024 ruling allowed non-bank TASE members to offer crypto trading and custody.

Digital banks

emerging

ONE ZERO (independent, AI-led)
Pepper (Bank Leumi-owned)

ONE ZERO is the first new independent Israeli bank in decades; Pepper is a bank-owned digital sub-brand.

B2B accounts payable

mature

Tipalti
Melio

Israeli-founded; both international by revenue. Tipalti at US$8.3bn peak valuation (2021) has retrenched materially.

Embedded finance

▌Pagaya — AI credit underwriting embedded in US lender stacks
▌Rapyd — embedded global payouts in marketplace platforms
▌Melio + Capital One Trade Credit (US SMB B2B)