Israel-based Bank Hapoalim and its investment bank subsidiary Poalim Capital Markets has set up an NIS80m ($20m) corporate venturing fund for technology start-ups that develop financial products.
Amir Aviv, chief executive of Poalim, will head the fund, with Bank Hapoalim’s Ari Pinto, head of corporate strategy, and Zvi Naggan, head of information technology a former Amdocs executive, on the committee, according to news provider Globes.
The fund will be invested over a three to five-year period in about 15 to 20 early stage start-ups already backed by independent venture capital firms. Hapoalim has identified 100 companies developing products, such as infrastructure management, cloud computing, storage, and information security for financial institutions’ core operations, Globes added.
Hapoalim already uses technologies from start-ups Dilligent, Storewiz, Wizsupport and Actimize, according to news provider YNet.