Jewish innovators named ‘Finnies’ winners
Lumi, whose founder and CEO is Israeli native Yanir Yakutiel, was one of the biggest winners on the night.
An impressive range of Jewish innovators are the driving forces behind companies named as winners at the 2023 Finnies – Fintech Australia’s seventh annual awards.
Lumi, whose founder and CEO is Israeli native Yanir Yakutiel, was one of the biggest winners on the night.
It was the only company to receive more than one award (Best Workplace Diversity and Emerging Leader of the Year for Paul Pagnan), continuing a broader trend seen with the Finnies last year where most companies only won a single prize.
“It’s a great honour for our team, and to be honest, I feel that those two award category wins are very inter-related, in our case,” Yakutiel told The AJN.
“Paul [Pagnan] was working with me before, at Sail [a fin-tech start-up that Yakutiel founded and ran until mid-2018]. He is only 27 now, so to achieve the Emerging Leader of the Year award is wonderful recognition of his work, and also the nurturing environment that Lumi has provided for all its staff.”
Lumi specialises in harnessing big data in real time, and analytics, to offer customised lending solutions. Yakutiel said he is proud to have staff who come from all backgrounds and believes that having diversity within the workplace delivers great outcomes.
“For example, our staff retention is very high, and our office is packed every day,” he said.
“We do have flexible working arrangements, but find that people really enjoy coming into our office to work. We are focused on doing what we are good at, and the results flow on from that.”
Dr Lili Sussman from Wisr won Female FinTech Leader of the Year. Wisr, whose chief product officer is Israeli native Ben Berger, was also a finalist for Best Workplace Diversity, Excellence in Consumer Lending, and for the Positive Impact award.
Prospa, which has a Jewish co-founder in Greg Moshal, and an Israeli, Shai Haim, as chief technology officer, won for Excellence in Business Lending. Established 10 years ago as a responsive lender and financial manager for the businesses sector, it offers world-class technology and expertise.
Walter Rapoport and Rael Ross are co-founders and joint CEOs of BUTN, an embedded finance platform and funder, specialising in assisting businesses to grow faster via multiple cashflow solutions. BUTN won for Excellence in Industry Collaborations and Partnerships, through its work with MYOB.
Honey Insurance, founded by Richard Joffe, won for Excellence in Insurance Tech.
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