Company: Okoora
Founder: Benjamin Avraham
Website: https://okoora.com/
About Okoora
Swiss fintech innovator Okoora specialises in facilitating cross-border payments for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and enables them to safeguard their businesses from exchange rate fluctuations. The bootstrapped company was founded in 2021 by Benjamin Avraham, founder of Ofakim Group, Israel’s leading financial risk management company. SMEs face significant hurdles daily in managing foreign currency risks, often without the resources available to larger enterprises. Okoora is disrupting cross-border payments by democratising access to advanced currency management tools, levelling the playing field for businesses of all sizes with its affordable SaaS solution. The company currently has a committed team of 100 professionals based across Israel, Switzerland, Germany, Cyprus, and Poland.
Transacting cross-border has its challenges. Pitfalls include multiple accounts to maintain, too many cross-border transactions to keep track of, lack of transparency, unreasonable banking fees and funds lost on volatile exchange rates. Moreover, hedging for this currency risk is quite complex and while banks do provide a solution, it is primarily directed toward large enterprises, with smaller businesses overlooked.
To bridge this gap, Okoora’s flagship product, an intuitive, advanced AI-based risk management platform, Automated Business Currency Management (ABCM™), empowers businesses to better manage their currency operations. This proprietary platform combines operational tools, a comprehensive system for managing currency risks, and access to an extensive network of banks and transaction rooms.
The platform simplifies the management of currency transactions and is designed to assist businesses of all sizes and types in safely navigating foreign exchange markets. In response to customers’ cross-border payment requirements, Okoora recently introduced several new features to its ABCM™ – one-click foreign account opening (Payments Account), Payment on Behalf, and Fast Payment. Added to these features a soft launch of Okoora’s mobile app for Android in the Google store.
Okoora launched an App Marketplace to support the ABCM™ platform, offering businesses a secure and intuitive platform to purchase additional services that augment the primary capabilities of its cloud-based solution for currency management.
There are several apps available on the App Marketplace such as: Free Outgoing Payments, where companies can reduce costs by sending free, regular payments; an FX Expert Package, which provides a team of experts that detail the complexities of FX management; and an FX Hedging Policy, which enables users to build a custom FX hedging policy that serves their strategic objectives and business needs. The App Marketplace represents the next step towards Okoora’s mission of democratising financial services and empowering businesses to fine-tune their currency management experience.
Given the increased volatility and complexity of international financial markets in the post-Covid era and instability in the Middle East due to tensions in the region, Okoora was able to realise a 48% growth in its customer base during 2023 and recorded a 465% increase in the quantity of payment transactions and a 161% increase in hedging transactions over the past year.
More recently, okoora received recognition as a winner of IBS Intelligence Digital Banking Award in the Forex Management category in April 2024 and being listed on CNBC Ranking list.
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