Oded Zehavi, Co-Founder/CEO at Mesh – $60M to Build a Corporate Self-Driving Wallet, Lessons from PayPal, & the Fascinating Israeli Fintech World

This article is part of?Fintech Leaders, a newsletter with over 37,000 dreamers, entrepreneurs, investors, and students of financial services. I invite you to share and?sign up here!

My guest today is Oded Zehavi, Co-founder & CEO at MESH , a corporate spend platform that aims to empower finance teams at every company. Founded in 2018 out of New York City and Tel Aviv, Mesh now serves almost 1,000 corporations and has raised more than $60 million dollars in venture funding.

In this episode, we discuss:

His time at PayPal and what he learned there working with great people and many other future global fintech entrepreneurs.

“We were really trying to build the playbook how to go international… going from a company that is mainly US based, with a US mindset… to take a product internationally was an amazing exercise. Add to that… there were a lot of challenges on how to take such a product and convince the regulators in all of these countries.”

Walking the fine balance of fintech innovation, where you have to build and ship fast in a highly regulated environment.

“When it comes to payments, the only way you can do things fast is to bring solutions that are complying with the regulations and can scale… in our space, we are only successful if we can generate economies of scale.“

A birds-eye view of the fascinating Israeli fintech ecosystem and what’s driving it.

“One of the uniquenesses of the Israeli market, compared to the French one or some other markets, is that the domestic market is not interesting enough. Most of us are not even offering the service to local clients, so you're thinking global from day one.”

Oded’s vision for Mesh, where they are building a self-driving wallet for corporate CFOs… and a whole lot more!

“In the corporate spend space, technology really makes the difference… it's a one-way ticket, meaning a company that shifts one day to this new technology and to the self-driving automation will never go back.”

Want more podcast episodes? Join me and follow Fintech Leaders today on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app for weekly conversations with today’s global leaders that will dominate the 21st century in fintech, business, and beyond.

Previous Episodes You May Enjoy:

Sergio Fogel & Gonzalo Strauss – Building dLocal, Datanomik, and AstroPay. What’s the Secret to Scaling a Multibillion-dollar Company with Minimal Funding?

General Atlantic’s Martín Escobari – Three Traits of the Best Entrepreneurs, 42 years of Global Investment Lessons & How the Regret Minimization Framework Changed his Life

Dan Westgarth, COO of Deel – From $1-$100 Million ARR in 20 Months, Powering the Global Hiring Revolution, & What it Means to be COO

Jimmy Soni: The Inside Story of PayPal – Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and the Company that Shaped the Modern Internet

Peter Lord, CEO/Co-Founder of Codat – Raising $160M to Unlock Small Business Data, How to Plan Your International Expansion, & The Future of Open Banking

Alexa von Tobel, Co-Founder at Inspired Capital – The Future of your Wallet, Global Fintech Trends, & How to Look for Exceptional Founders

Sophia Goldberg, The Field Guide to Global Payments – Unlocking Opportunities and Understanding the Complex and Fast-Changing World of Payments

Eric Glyman, Ramp Co-Founder/CEO – From Zero to $4 Billion in 30 Months, The Future of Business Banking, & Why you need to Double Down on your Strengths and Hire for Your Weaknesses

Miguel Armaza is Co-Founder & Managing General Partner of Gilgamesh Ventures, a seed-stage investment fund focused on fintech in the Americas. He also hosts and writes the Fintech Leaders podcast and newsletter.