Registry

Does Rapyd support Israel?

Rapyd Financial Network

Support documentedupdated 2026-09-26

Yes — Rapyd has documented support for Israel on record. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Tech companies · Banks & financial companies · Companies that support Israel

Background

Rapyd is one of the clearest cases of an Israeli company that chose visibility over caution during the war, and it paid a measurable commercial price for it. After co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman's LinkedIn posts in late 2023 — the Israeli flag with 'We will win. Rapyd supports Israel,' followed by 'We will kill every single Hamas terrorist in Gaza and destroy them' and 'Any cost' — a boycott campaign spread through Iceland, where Rapyd had built its European licensing base by acquiring the local acquirers Korta (2020) and Valitor (2022) and employed about 120 people. Globes reported that IKEA Iceland, the electricity company Snerpa Power, Subway, JYSK and ILVA stopped using Rapyd's platform, an anonymous website tracked which Icelandic businesses still worked with it, and more than 20 organisations including the Red Cross, UNICEF and the Iceland National Theatre said they were seeking alternatives, while Apple, Subaru, Nespresso, Domino's, Vodafone and KFC stayed and Rapyd remained sponsor of Iceland's handball league. The company declined to comment at the time; a year later Shtilman put the cumulative revenue loss at $15-20 million and said Israeli identity was 'part of the cost of doing business.' Two attribution lines matter on this page. First, the wartime statements were the chief executive's own posts and interviews, not board resolutions — although he invoked the company's name in them. Second, Shtilman's May 2026 move to buy 50% of Fedanco Sports, the vehicle holding 29% of Maccabi Tel Aviv, in a proposed $30 million investment that would seat him on the club's board, is a personal investment by the individual and is separate from Rapyd's corporate seven-year sponsorship of the same club. No verified corporate cash donation by Rapyd to Israeli war-relief, medical or military-linked charities has been found. The documented corporate support is its sponsorship of Maccabi Tel Aviv's basketball club — a five-year secondary sponsorship signed in September 2020 and the main sponsorship from July 2025, which neither party priced and which ICE and Walla put at $2.5-3 million a season — the Purim event it co-produced with the club in March 2022 for about 60 lone soldiers from the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center, and the company's Israeli operating base; its executives' support is documented as statements.

Globes — Rapyd CEO's Hamas remarks provoke boycott in Iceland CTech (Calcalist) — Rapyd CEO Arik Shtilman buys into Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball The Jewish Chronicle — Israel's tech chiefs: We will come back even stronger

Timeline of documented support

2016201820202022202420262016 — Operations in Israel: Israeli economy — Tel Aviv headquarters campus, high-tech jobs and tax baseOperations in Israel20162020-09 — Sponsorship: Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club, IsraelSponsorship2020-092022-03 — In-kind support: Lone soldiers serving in the Israel Defense Forces, through the Michael Levin Lone Soldier CenterIn-kind support2022-032023 — Public statement: Not applicable — public statement by co-founder and CEO Arik ShtilmanPublic statement20232023-08 — Acquisition: Prosus / PayU (seller) — PayU Global Payment Organisation, Latin America and AfricaAcquisition2023-082024-09 — Public statement: Not applicable — public statements by co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman on the company's Israeli identityPublic statement2024-092025-07 — Sponsorship: Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club, IsraelSponsorship2025-07

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel2016—Israeli economy — Tel Aviv headquarters campus, high-tech jobs and tax base
Rapyd is an Israeli fintech-as-a-service company founded in 2016 in Tel Aviv by Arik Shtilman, Arkady Karpman and Omer Priel; it started as the consumer travel wallet CashDash and pivoted to a business-to-business payments platform in 2017. Israeli business press describes it as the country's largest and most valuable privately held fintech company; Globes reported in December 2023 that it employed about 700 people worldwide, of whom 120 were in Iceland, and Calcalist reported in September 2024 that it ran 20 offices with 850 employees and had processed about $100 billion of transactions over the preceding year. Corporate-structure note, because the group is often described as British: the parent is Rapyd Financial Network (2016) Ltd., and it trades through regulated regional subsidiaries — Rapyd Europe hf., licensed by the Central Bank of Iceland as an electronic money institution; CashDash UK Limited, authorised by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under licence 900769 and registered at Companies House as company 10207686, incorporated in England on 31 May 2016; Rapyd Financial Technology US, Inc.; and Rapyd Holdings Pte Ltd. in Singapore. The UK company is therefore a licensed operating subsidiary, while the group's founders, chief executive and main campus are in Tel Aviv.
Public statement2023—Not applicable — public statement by co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman
In the weeks after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, Rapyd co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman posted a picture of the Israeli flag on LinkedIn with the words 'We will win. Rapyd supports Israel.' Globes, reporting the episode on 27 December 2023, placed the post in the previous month. A former Rapyd product manager in the company's Iceland office, Tindur Hafsteinsson, asked him to stop sharing 'geopolitical propaganda'; Shtilman replied, 'Maybe you misunderstood so I will say it in a clear way. We will kill every single Hamas terrorist in Gaza and destroy them. Clear?' and, asked at what cost that would be justified, answered 'Any cost.' Attribution note: these were the chief executive's own posts, though he explicitly invoked the company's name; Rapyd itself declined to comment to Globes and issued no corporate statement of its own on the exchange.
One source
Public statement2024-09—Not applicable — public statements by co-founder and CEO Arik Shtilman on the company's Israeli identity
Nearly a year into the war, Arik Shtilman publicly committed the company to keeping its Israeli identity rather than softening it commercially. He told The Jewish Chronicle in September 2024, 'We are not going to hide that we are Israeli,' and, of the business damage, 'We can withstand anything. We are not concerned. We understand it is part of the cost of doing business as an Israeli company,' adding that at least half of the post-October-7 losses had been recovered. Speaking to Calcalist's CTech on 18 September 2024 he quantified the damage: boycott-driven customer losses cost Rapyd roughly $15-20 million in revenue, while some customers chose the company precisely because it is Israeli. He said in the same interview that Rapyd had moved to profitability that year and was targeting a public offering in 2026. Attribution note: statements by the chief executive speaking for the company; they are declarations of Israeli identity, not donations.
Acquisition2023-08-01$610,000,000Prosus / PayU (seller) — PayU Global Payment Organisation, Latin America and Africa
On 1 August 2023 Rapyd announced it would buy PayU's Global Payment Organisation from the Netherlands-based group Prosus for $610 million, taking on the business in more than 30 countries in Latin America and Africa but excluding PayU's India, Turkey and South-East Asia operations. Arik Shtilman framed it as part of a strategy combining organic growth and acquisitions to make Rapyd 'one of the largest integrated global fintechs in the world.' The deal cleared its final regulatory approvals and completed in March 2025; Shtilman had told Calcalist in September 2024 that PayU brought about 1,000 staff and $300 million of revenue, roughly doubling the Israeli company's headcount. Attribution note: this is a commercial transaction that enlarged an Israel-founded company, not a donation or a transfer to any Israeli cause.
Sponsorship2020-09-17—Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club, Israel
Rapyd's sponsorship of Maccabi Tel Aviv's basketball club began five years before the deal that renamed the team. The club announced on 17 September 2020 that Rapyd had signed a five-year strategic sponsorship agreement, putting the Rapyd logo on the back of the players' league jerseys below each squad number, on their shorts and warm-up shirts and on the team bus, with the players entering the court at Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv through a 'Rapyd gate'. Announcing the second of the five seasons on 10 August 2021, the club valued the sponsorship at 'millions of shekels' and said it also included a viewing box at the arena, and Arik Shtilman said Rapyd was 'proud to extend our sponsorship of the country's team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, which has represented Israel in Europe in recent decades'. The Israeli sports site ONE, reporting on 26 March 2025 that Rapyd was about to become main sponsor, described Rapyd as having been a secondary sponsor paying about $500,000 a season while Playtika was main sponsor at about $1.5 million a season. Neither party confirmed a figure, and the shekel and dollar estimates are per season rather than a contract total, so no amount is recorded here. The five-year agreement ran from the 2020-21 season and was superseded by the broader seven-year main sponsorship announced on 15 July 2025.
Sponsorship2025-07-15—Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball Club, Israel
Rapyd signed a seven-year sponsorship of Maccabi Tel Aviv's basketball club, announced by the club on 15 July 2025, under which the team competes as Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv and carries the Rapyd logo on its jerseys. Both sides described it as among the largest sponsorship investments in Israeli sport, building on the five-year arrangement that began in summer 2020. Neither party published a figure, and the Israeli outlets that reported one did not agree: the business site ICE said on the day of the announcement that Rapyd would pay at least $2.5 million a season, rising to $3 million with bonuses, a record for a sponsor in Israeli basketball, while Walla put it at $3 million a season, double what the previous main sponsor Playtika had paid. Because those are unconfirmed per-season estimates and no contract total was published, no amount is recorded in this row. Club chairman Shimon Mizrahi called it 'a great honour', while Arik Shtilman said 'this is more than a sponsorship; it's a statement of shared purpose' and Rapyd's own announcement tied the deal to its 'deep roots in Israel' and its Israeli operations hub. This is corporate money going to an Israeli institution, disclosed by both parties. Note on sources: ynet's Hebrew report of the same day reproduces the club's announcement rather than reporting independently, while ICE and Walla each add a figure of their own.
In-kind support2022-03-17—Lone soldiers serving in the Israel Defense Forces, through the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center
Rapyd and Maccabi Tel Aviv's basketball club jointly produced a Purim event for lone soldiers on 17 March 2022, which the club published in its community-giving section. About 60 lone soldiers from the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center were invited to watch the club's win over Ironi Ness Ziona from premium seats and then taken to an after-party at Heichal HaMaccabim, the club's museum, with a DJ set by Shaked Dudovitz, catering and Rapyd merchandise as gifts; five of them won tickets in a raffle to 'The Moment 2', Rapyd's own party at Ganei HaTaarucha in Tel Aviv featuring David Guetta, Alok and Alesso. The club wrote that Rapyd and Maccabi both support the invited soldiers and described the evening as a continuation of the club's long-running work with the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Center, which it said cares for more than 6,000 lone soldiers then serving in the Israel Defense Forces — about half of them immigrants whose families live abroad, the other half Israelis without family support. Attribution and type: this is in-kind hospitality and merchandise provided by the company together with the club, not a cash donation, and the standing relationship with the Center belongs to the club; no value was disclosed, so no amount is recorded. The only account of the evening is the club's own, and the club was one of the two parties to it; no independent coverage was found.
One source

Frequently asked questions

Did Rapyd donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

We have no records of cash donations, but Rapyd has documented support of other kinds (Operations in Israel, Public statement, Acquisition, Sponsorship, In-kind support). See the records on this page.

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 17 distinct sources are cited for Rapyd. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-26

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