Team8 Fintech’s leadership team. Left to right: Yuval Tal, Rakefet Russak Aminoach, Galia Beer-Gabel and Ronen Assia
Team8, an Israeli investment firm in the realm of cyber security, has established Team8 Fintech, a practice focused on founding and scaling transformative fintech companies. The firm says that it has raised $100 million for the venture.
Fintech means financial technology. Basically it refers to the development of new tech which can help people in the financial sector. If you ever saw the television show “Billions,” then you know that math plays a great part in making investment decisions. The show may oversimplify things, but it gets the point across that algorithms and other types of calculations are used to determine possible future market fluctuations.
Many top mathematics people go into the filed of finance for this very reason. That as well as the fact that they can make loads of money which is not possible in academia. But if you can’t find someone that brilliant to help you figure things out then new Fintech software can do it for you.
But the funny thing is, if you are already an investment firm then why invest in companies that make new fintech. Just bring the people from those companies aboard and have them do the work for you in house and keep their genius to yourself. Maybe it is because fintech is more helpful to smaller investors and the big boys don’t need it. So instead they want to cash in on selling it to the rest of the world.
Team8 points out that Modern technology advancements and banking-as-a-service platforms make it easier than ever to re-purpose and integrate different layers of the financial technology stack into new applications. It states that younger generations are looking for solutions with their favorite brands rather than their parents’ financial institutions of choice, an aging population is depositing checks by phone now, and that COVID-19 has fast-forwarded today’s market needs by a decade.
So fintech can also be used by every day people to handle their personal finances. And in a Covid-19 world that is something ever more important since people must now do everything from home.
Team8 Fintech is led by former President & CEO of Israel’s largest bank, Leumi Group, Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, Founder & President of digital payments unicorn Payoneer, Yuval Tal, and Founder and Former Chief Product Officer of social trading network and multi-asset brokerage unicorn eToro, Ronen Assia. Galia Beer-Gabel, former Head of Business Development for PayPal across Eastern Europe,Israel and Africa, is also joining Team8 Fintech as part of the founding team.
“The financial industry is facing a perfect storm, with inevitable changes and advancements already underway. Understanding the challenges and complexities of incumbents or other enterprises to innovate from within, my passion is to build the type of companies I would have wanted to collaborate with in my previous role as CEO of a bank. I see great opportunities in leveraging new technologies to completely reinvent financial services, drive efficiency and improve customer experience,” said Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, Managing Partner, Team8 Fintech.
“In order to execute leading-edge fintech, a strong technology partner is vital – Team8 is renowned for its best-in-class technology capabilities and I’m excited about the fintech powerhouse we’re going to build.”
“Today, we are joining forces with giants. Financial Services are first and foremost about Trust. To make them more efficient, available and ultimately fair, Digital Trust is paramount. And Digital Trust is dependent on Cyber Security and Privacy – a natural habitat for Team8. Assembling this all-star team is a rare event and is gearing us with the talent, gravitas and exceptional leadership skills to build transformative fintech companies. This cements another important milestone in Team8’s journey as we expand our foundry model and become a multi-sector venture group,” said Nadav Zafrir, Managing Partner, Team8 Platform.
