Deputy CEO Head of Corporate Banking Division, Bank Leumi
Aliyah Media at the Israel Dealmakers Summit - Interview with Yifat Oron, CEO of Leumi Tech
Aliyah Media Editor David Grana had an engaging conversation with charming LeumiTech CEO Yifat Oron at the Israel Dealmakers Conference in Redwood City, California to discuss the effects of technology on the banking and finance industry.
About Yifat Oron
Yifat Oron, Deputy CEO and Head of the Corporate Banking Division at Bank Leumi, has spoken publicly about the role of the banking system in Israel's technology sector. In a 2023 interview, she stated that the banking system had been "completely lacking" as part of the "startup nation" ecosystemikuha. She has also discussed the need for more talent in the tech industry, saying that Israel is "lacking thousands" of people that companies would hire if they could find them. Oron has commented on global technology trends and geopolitical dynamics. In 2019, she noted that regulators and politicians have debated whether large technology companies should be split up, with some arguing they are "too big to fail" and others that their parts would be worth more if separated. She also remarked that Israel may need to decide "who is a friend" in terms of capital sources. In 2017, she said that China's restrictions on outbound capital had caused a "significant decrease" in investment flows into Israeli tech. Oron has also emphasized the importance of unit economics in technology investing, stating that companies had "forgotten about being profitable" while focusing on revenue growth.
Transcript (19 segments)
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David Khurana0:00
David Khurana with Alia Media at the Israeli Dealmakers Summit here in Redwood City, California, and I'm joined by Yifat Oron, the CEO of Leumi Tech. Hello.
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Yifat Oron0:14
Hi, how are you?
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David Khurana0:14
I'm doing well, thank you very much. Thank you so much for joining us. I wanted to first off find out a little bit about your position at Leumi Tech. What is Leumi Tech?
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Yifat Oron0:25
Leumi Tech is actually Bank Leumi's arm that is working with Israeli or Israeli-related startups. We're their bank, essentially. We're servicing them. We're working with 4,800 companies both in Israel, Palo Alto, New York, and London.
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David Khurana0:42
Alright, and I understand this is a big project, a big undertaking that happened in the last few years called Pepper. I'd love to find out a little bit about Pepper.
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Yifat Oron0:52
Pepper is our bank's initiative to do a wholly mobile, digital, new bank targeted in the retail market in Israel, and it's the next generation of banking. We put it under the Leumi sort of umbrella, but it's a wholly new brand, and it's picking up wonderfully.
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David Khurana1:10
Is Pepper also being white-labeled? So if other banks want to use it, is it being white-labeled and being sold to or licensed out to other banks?
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Yifat Oron1:21
Maybe that's going to happen. For now, we're focusing on growing our local community of users.
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David Khurana1:29
And by local, you're referring strictly to Israel. What are some of the other big initiatives that you see being undertaken by yourself and the bank at the moment?
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Yifat Oron1:39
So actually, maybe we can focus on what I'm doing, which is servicing the tech companies. Our aim is to be able to provide them everything they need. So we started with servicing them, and now we're providing them a significant, growing number of credit deals. We're trying to help those companies grow, and we think credit is the way to go because it's a little less, or not at all, dilutive. So we'd like to join parties with the VCs that we work very closely with and provide a lot of credit to these companies, and later on, we'll see what else of new stuff we can offer.
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David Khurana2:13
So you're working with the VCs, not against them? Or what is the feeling by the VCs by you intervening in financing some of these initiatives?
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Yifat Oron2:24
Very good question. I think that what we're seeing out in the valley globally, and more so in Israel, is that Israeli companies would like to stay private longer than they used to. They don't want to get sold early on. And when you want to stay private, you need capital, and you need a lot of capital. So it's sort of a win-win situation that we accompany the money that comes in equity from the VCs and allowing the company to get more money without getting more diluted. So it's a win-win. We collaborate.
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David Khurana2:56
Are you able to share who some of the biggest companies or more popular companies are that you've provided lending to?
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Yifat Oron3:02
So mostly we don't talk about it, but we do have a few names I can share. So we work with a company called SimilarWeb, you know them. We're working with a company called Fiverr, which actually is a German company that acquired an Israeli company that was our client, and now we're working with them globally. These are two examples of up-and-coming, very, very interesting tech companies and media marketing companies, and we're very proud in these companies. They work with us.
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David Khurana3:34
What's some of the relevance and importance for you for being at this particular event? What do you gain from it?
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Yifat Oron3:43
So like I said, our purpose in life is to service the Israeli tech community, and everything that we can service them with, we like to follow our clients. So we provide them services in all the places that they're at. One of them being, you know, the Silicon Valley. It's very big for Israeli companies. Many of them are here, and part of what we do is to follow them. We have a very big operation here in Palo Alto servicing hundreds of Israeli companies, and a reason for me being here is to help my team grow this number and have thousands of them working with us here.
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David Khurana4:16
So would you ever find yourself moving out here to the Bay Area because it's such an important part of your operations and of Leumi Tech? Or do you think that you'll remain in Israel for the moment?
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Yifat Oron4:29
So maybe I'll take the analogy of some of the companies we work with, or many of them. They're all global companies. Many of them have headquarters in Israel managing the world out of Israel. So I think if tech companies can do it, I can do the same thing. So for now, no.
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David Khurana4:46
No, please. It's a shame. We love having you here on the West Coast. Thank you so much for joining us, and we really appreciate your comments.