Okoora, a Swiss-Israeli fintech startup, today announced the introduction of its AI-powered platform for international payments, banking, and risk management in a number of European nations. The Automatic Business Currency Management (ABCM) platform from Okoora combines operational tools, currency risk management modules, and access to a sizable network of banks and trading rooms with the goal of streamlining currency operations.
The fintech industry in Europe has quickly moved from the periphery to the center of the continent’s financial environment, according to consultancy firm McKinsey. There is currently at least one fintech among the top five financial service providers, as assessed by market value, in each of the seven largest European economies by GDP. The contributions fintechs give to clients, the financial industry on the continent, and the economy and society as a whole underpin their enormous expansion in Europe and their rising mainstream prominence.
According to the most current BIS poll, conducted in April 2022, the currency market is the biggest investment market in the world, with an average daily volume of $7.5 trillion. Due to changes in economic situations like unemployment, inflation, and other factors, the value of foreign currencies might change. Additionally, unexpected breaking news, local election results, global tensions, as well as different tragedies and turbulences, can all cause volatility. Foreign exchange rate risk is always there for companies that are exposed to the foreign currency market.
Similar to all firms worldwide, European businesses are particularly vulnerable to this risk in 2023. At the conclusion of the previous year, Nick Sando, principal at Octopus Ventures, one of the biggest and busiest venture capital firms in Europe, made the following prediction: “It feels like we may continue to expect considerable foreign exchange volatility due to economic and political moves [in 2023]. As they continue to alleviate a severe pain experienced by the majority of firms engaged in international trade, I would predict that many of the fintechs managing foreign exchange risk for small and large organizations will have wonderful 2023.
Businesses may manage their foreign currency cash flow using Okoora’s unified command center, enabling smooth international payments in more than 100 different currencies. Okoora has expanded significantly since the platform’s introduction in January 2022, bringing on more than 7,000 big and small enterprises as clients.
Tens of thousands of transactions worth billions of dollars have been conducted on the platform to date, and every client Okoora gained in 2022 has extended their ABCM licenses for 2023. Okoora intends to increase the functionality of the platform by adding new services and broadening the list of accepted currencies. It has already expanded its services to include Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), creating significant alliances with Israeli and global financial institutions.
According to a recent analysis from Startup Nation Central, “one of the strengths of the Israeli fintech ecosystem is its diversity across subsectors and the agility of builders to pursue new innovative domains.” While the bar is higher and the market is more selective in 2023, “we remain excited about the future, particularly around gaps in legacy industries that can be disrupted by financial services (vertical fintech/embedded finance) and the era of AI-everywhere that is starting to demonstrate a material impact across the financial innovation stack.”
Recent funding trends globally show the VCs’ excitement and expectations surrounding the potential impact of B2B fintech. Investors continue to favor B2B possibilities, as evidenced by the fact that enterprise fintech startups accounted for 79.7% of all fintech VC transaction value in the first quarter. This is likely because there are still many B2B gaps to be addressed, and investments that are less immediately exposed to consumers have traditionally been regarded as more stable, according to the Pitchbook Q1 2023 Enterprise Fintech Report.
Without outside funding, Okoora runs as a bootstrap business and turned a profit in 2023. Benjamin Avraham, the creator of Ofakim Group, the top financial risk management firm in Israel, launched it in August 2021.
“Our cutting-edge AI-based risk management system regularly evaluates the activities of consumers, their distinctive qualities, and the commercial environment. This, along with personalized notifications and recommendations, has helped Israeli firms earn enormous financial gains amounting to billions of shekels, according to a statement from Avraham.
“Building on this success, we now want to reach enterprises across Europe with our unmatched technology solution. Avraham continued, “As CEO and Founder, I am dedicated to democratizing currency risk management and enabling millions of businesses to succeed in the global economy.
