Yael Kochman
November 12, 2023
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware that on October 7, 2023, Israel woke up to a new reality. 1,500 of our men, women and children have either been brutally murdered and hundreds taken hostage by terror organization, Hamas.
Since that day, the reality in Israel has changed. About 10% of our workforce was called on reserve duty. That goes for the High-Tech industry as well. The ones left behind were shocked for the first weeks, even if not directly affected by the war – Israel is a small country, and there’s no single person who doesn’t know someone who was murdered or abducted, who doesn’t have a family member, friends or employees who have either been evacuated from their homes or have been called on duty.
Thousands of people are volunteering to aid soldiers with equipment and food, and collect money for those whose homes were destroyed.
As you can imagine, business as usual is not a real option for us.
But still, even within this impossible situation, our tech companies continue to deliver. To develop new products and features, close deals, raise funds. And the retail tech sector is no different.
So I wanted to take the opportunity and congratulate some of our community companies who have announced some good news, especially during these difficult times. As we celebrate these achievements, we are reminded once again that the Israeli nation is unstoppable. We deliver, no matter what.
Here are some of the achievements from Israeli retail tech companies to celebrate this week:
Nayax, is a global commerce enablement, payments and loyalty platform based in Herzeliya, Israel. You may know them from the small yellow payment devices attached to vending machines worldwide, but this is only one of the products distributed by the successful, quiet, Israeli retail tech company.
At the end of October, Nayax announced the acquisition of Retail Pro International, a global leader in retail Point of Sale (POS) software. The transaction aligns with Nayax’s goal to optimize its retail business and rapidly expand its global footprint. The combined strengths of Nayax and Retail Pro, with its 30+ years of retail industry experience, are expected to yield revenue and cost synergies. The acquisition, subject to customary closing conditions, is anticipated to be completed in Q4 2023.
The acquisition is set to significantly expand Nayax’s retail business and solutions, reaching over 9,000 retailers with approximately 150,000 POS lanes in more than 100 countries. The strategic move is expected to triple Nayax’s access to the global attended retail market and create a comprehensive solution by integrating Retail Pro’s expertise with Nayax’s payment and loyalty platform. The deal, valued at $36.5 million, represents a major step in Nayax’s growth strategy, providing diverse revenue sources and global market penetration.
Shortly after announcing the acquisition, Nayax also reported on its Q3 financial results – a strong third quarter performance was highlighted by a 48% increase in recurring revenue and overall gross margin, which continued trending higher to 38%.
Yair Nechmad, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, expressed gratitude for support amid challenging times in Israel, emphasizing the commitment of Nayax’s global workforce in maintaining operations without material disruption.
For the full press release on the acquisition and the Q3 results.
buywith, founded by Adi Ronen and Eyal Sinai in 2018 to revolutionize the way we shop online, has already made a name as one of the leading Livestream shopping platforms in the US. Last week, it received recognition by Business Insider as the publication chose to feature the company as one of the leading innovative startups bringing social shopping into the mainstream in the US.
This recognition comes following their impressive achievements, including signing big names as clients and releasing a number of unique features, such as their patented “Shop with Me” experience, and the latest anticipated feature – multistreaming.
buywith enables brands and retailers to host live shopping events directly on their own websites, providing their customers access to an entertaining and educating experience leading to higher revenues and long lasting relationships between the consumers and the brand. These sessions, which are primarily influencers-led, have numerous advantages versus traditional live shopping on social media networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, as they enable the brands not only superior control of the experience and the outlined data resulting from it, but also enable a much seamless shopping experience for consumers who are able to, during the live event itself, add products to their carts and purchase them with a click of a button.
Yet, the appeal of hosting events on the social networks themselves has one clear upside: the massive audiences already there, waiting to be engaged, and the easy way of inviting them to participate with the small gesture of a push notification.
Hence, buywith’s latest multi streaming feature enables brands to enjoy both words: they get to host the session on their own website, enjoying far higher sales and revenues, but at the same time the sessions are broadcasted in real time to the social networks such as You-Tube and Facebook, for additional audiences to enjoy.
The above video is a recording of a session hosted by @smalltownme on Walmart.com a few days ago with already 2.7K views.
Full disclosure: the writer serves as the CMO of buywith.
For the article on Business Insider.
Returns have become a significant challenge for online retailers, leading to lost sales and increased operational costs. In response to this problem, ReturnGO, an Israeli retail tech startup founded in 2020, offers a comprehensive solution with its “post-purchase operating system.”
This system aims to reduce reverse logistics costs for online retailers and enhance sustainability by providing various return options. The platform, already utilized by over 2,700 Shopify merchants, processes more than 283,000 returns monthly. ReturnGO announced last week its partnership with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment to provide its return and exchange process for the 300,000 merchants on Amazon’s e-commerce third-party logistics platform. This collaboration is crucial in addressing the challenge of returns, which accounted for over $816.7 billion in lost sales for U.S. retailers in 2022.
The company’s recent funding round of $4.8 million, led by Trestle Partners, brings its total funding to $11.3 million. Investors in previous rounds who also participated in the current round include TPY Capital, Aristagora VC, SeedIL Ventures and Good Company.
With an annual recurring revenue of $1.8 million and a growth rate of 2.5 times compared to the previous year, ReturnGO plans to leverage this funding to expand its market presence, develop new solutions such as tracking capabilities, and explore opportunities in the mid-market and enterprise segments. The company also anticipates a Series A funding round in early 2024 and is actively hiring in areas related to go-to-market and sustainable sales.
ReturnGo’s founders, Aviad Raz and Eyal Rosental, emphasize that their automated return and exchange process is compatible with any e-commerce tech stack and offers customers more options, including a streamlined product exchange program to reduce the need for full refunds.
For the full TechCrunch article.
Full disclosure: the writer has been an advisor to the company.
Intelis is a business intelligence platform that Intelis enables eCommerce SMBs to play like the big players by providing intelligence and optimization capabilities in their stores and markets, with a SAAS platform that utilizes AI to seamlessly provide product-level actionable insights, no-code automation, and market intelligence.
Founded in 2020 by Omri and Adi Ben Matitiau, the company has raised an undisclosed Seed round, and has been hard at work developing its game changing platform. On Friday, they launched their Shopify app with a big Product Hunt campaign, which currently already has 510 upvotes. Feel free to add yours to continue supporting their launch.
While some retail tech key employees including founders and CEOs have been called on reserve duty, as you can see from the above our ecosystem continues thriving, and delivering results for clients, investors and the Israeli economy.
We pray for the safe return of our hostages and brave soldiers, and at the same time, we never stop delivering.
Got more ecosystem new to share? Let us know and we’re happy to include.
Want to help? Continue partnering with and investing in Israel’s amazing companies. You’ll be sure they deliver, no matter what.
