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Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
Ariel Tiger, CEO of EverC | Episode 378
Dive into the fascinating world of digital payments in our latest episode featuring Ariel Tiger, CEO of EverC. We explore the intricate landscape of risk management as the payments industry evolves at an unprecedented pace. With the surge in online merchants post-pandemic, fraud is on the rise, transforming the way companies approach security.
Discover how EverC combines innovative technology with risk intelligence to equip businesses with the tools they need to intercept illegal activity before it occurs. Ariel shares his perspective on the dynamic role artificial intelligence plays in this context, suggesting that incorporating AI doesn't just enhance operational efficiency; it’s essential for sustainability in the ever-changing payment ecosystem.
Listeners will gain insights into the challenges facing digital commerce today and learn why building strong foundations in compliance and adaptability is key for future success. Whether you are a startup entering the fintech space or an established player navigating new technological advances, this episode offers valuable takeaways for everyone.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape. We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments. We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast. I'm your host, greg Myers, and on today's show we have a very special guest, ariel Tiger, the CEO of Eversee. So welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me Absolutely. So let's start out by having you tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe where you're from, where you grew up, where you went to school, a few things like that.
Speaker 3:Sure. So again, thank you so much for having me and thanks so much for the invaluable content. You know I saw that it's five years in the making, so congratulations on getting to 400 episodes. As for me, born and raised in Israel, you know the various experiences in my life shaped my leadership style. So I graduated Naval Academy in the late 90s, served for almost 10 years in several leadership executive positions and that experience taught me a lot, starting from how to build a team, how to operate in a team, how to operate under a high-pressure environment and the significance of planning.
Speaker 3:From there I continued into accounting school and law school. These two experiences taught me a lot about the business world, those two different languages, the legal language of business and the financial aspect of that. From there I did my business school at the University of Chicago Amazing experience, cold City, the Windy City. Spent two years in the Windy City, moved there for almost a decade in the Big Apple in New York City, two years in London and back to Israel. So I'm based in Israel these days, married with an amazing and supportive wife, and four kids in the span of six years. So she's definitely the real trooper here. My two older boys envisioning themselves being a professional soccer player. I find myself a lot over the weekend, you know, spending on, you know in the soccer field. So that's about it in a short manner.
Speaker 2:Okay, awesome. Well, let's talk about the company, so tell the audience what Eversy does.
Speaker 3:Sure, so we are a risk intelligence platform for the global digital commerce. We provide merchant and product risk insights to enable our clients to automatically intercept illegal activity at scale. Our platform is two main products, a unified platform, two main products. The first one and the legacy product is MerchantView. Everything you want to know about the merchants, from onboarding a merchant monitoring, transaction laundering, the ICP, the client profile being acquired, processors, psps, payfax, isos, buy now, pay later.
Speaker 3:Platforms On the other side of the platform. Once you understand the merchants, we expanded the platform into products. Right, you want to understand. If you see a store, you want to walk into the store virtually, so that's product level classification. Can you sell a store? You want to walk into the store virtually, so that's product level classification. Can you sell a pen? Can you sell cannabis? Can you buy it in spain and ship it to france or in different states in the us, because the regulation is different and essentially is fighting illicit products, counterfeit or anything that is not under the AUP, the accepted user policy that a marketplace is.
Speaker 3:Again, the clients, the profile of the clients, here are marketplaces. We are a B2B large enterprise company. We're a global company. We're all over the world. We started in North America, but today we're serving clients all over the world. What we saw is that the fraudster on one side of the world tomorrow is on the other side of the world, and the fraudster on one platform tomorrow is on another platform. So the global reach is very, very important from that perspective.
Speaker 2:Okay. And how do you go to market? Do you have a sales team? Do you work through partnership channels? What's the go-to-market strategy?
Speaker 3:The initial strategy and the main one today. We're going direct. We're working with the largest organizations in the industry and over there we just go to them, instead of doing the trade shows and all this, which we do as well. We just go to them and offer our products. We believe in the superiority of the product and once they test it, most times that's a sell. We're now expanding into partnerships and in places we don't have main offices, we will leverage local partners to deliver the products. Okay, and how big is the company? Well, from an employee count, we are roughly 130 people. Product and R&D are based in Israel. Go to market all over the world.
Speaker 2:It's hard to have a conversation about what you do and not talk about AI. How do companies that you work with use AI to help reduce risk in their own environments?
Speaker 3:Before answering this, let's just take a step back and talk about the industry and see if the industry is changing dramatically in front of our eyes. So, just from 30,000 foot, fraud is on a massive rise. If we go five, six years back, when COVID hit the mom and pop shop or companies with no online presence, you got to be online. You want to be in business, you got to be online and that was an influx of merchants online. Not only this you know, with COVID coming, everyone needs to be online and new methods of payments, everyone wants everything immediately. So you know you saw an influx of merchants with that, with the Gen AI coming right, and with everyone online, you know the frauds are coming. They see that they can take advantage of the system. And now, armed with Gen AI, with the ability to supercharge fraud, you got to lean to the it, the nano merchants, right. So you see that. You know today. You know, with all the tools and the technology, you can be a sole proprietor. You know one person, you know one man show. So, on the one hand, you know you're selling out of your garage, on the other hand, you're buying stuff. So there is a convergence of the seller and the buyers right and that the significance of understanding who is behind. You know the keyboard is very, very important and if in the past you saw that, hey, we hold, if you think about the schemes or some other identity companies, we understand what's the identity of the individual. Today, you got to be able to connect the two. Because nano merchants represent a significant amount overall, you got to have sort of like a business graph that you can match with the other data points that you have. So, connecting to your question about AI, got to embed AI in everything that you do. You got to lean to the future from that perspective In our industry, if you think about the past, it was analyst driven and rule based driven.
Speaker 3:Today, you, today, when the fraudsters have fraud as a service and all that, you've got to be able to fight with technology. You've got to have Gen AI embedded in all aspects of your operation. It's not only as you build the models, it's across the company, it's HR, it's operation. Our clients, definitely while using us's across the company, it's HR, it's operation. So our clients, you know, definitely while using us. You know we tell them you focus on what you do best. You know, let us, you know, come with the best technology out there, with all you know, maintaining the regulation and all the different frameworks, and you focus on what you do best.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a good segue, kind of to the next question or thought is these companies? Obviously you want them to do what they do best, but some of them might choose to build something in-house. So maybe talk to us about the in-house decision building it in-house versus outsourcing it to someone like you.
Speaker 3:That's a great question. So there is a lot of investment coming into this. So a lot of times, especially, you're talking about tech-oriented companies, because most times you're not going to find regular financial institutions trying to build it in-house. But the approach that we took into this and thinking about whatever seed does, what differentiates what we do here is we start with a tech-first approach. So a lot of times and connecting to what he asked, the competition is not the legacy provider. The competition is what the company is doing in-house and essentially, what we try to tell them. Again, this is what we do best. So we start with a tech-first approach that we are not building the foundational models but we are the application layer right. So we have Gen AI models embedded across the entire product suite. You know we do it faster better, I would say right.
Speaker 3:And as you think about, you know scale right. You got to have the infrastructure to do it on a massive scale. You got to make sure that you are maintaining the regulatory know-how and the changes all over the world and you've got to make sure that you have all the data because at the end of the day, with the fraudster, it's not like a fraudster will come to you, greg, and say, hey, greg, I'm a fraudster, can I start processing? You've got to be able to find them and to trace them right. So the business graph and understanding the data points from all over the world. So we not only know the merchants, but we know dozens of millions of data points that are connected to each and every one of them. That helps you to identify the hidden risk across the platform. So you know, it saves you again when you think about you know the building house In-house. It saves you again.
Speaker 3:And you think about you know the building house in house. It saves you a lot of manpower. You are constantly staying on top of. You know the most recent regulatory framework and instead of employing all these people, you can allocate all these resources to what you do best.
Speaker 3:The last component that I would say for this one is that you know, as a company, when you build this, you only see what you see. When you use a vendor, you have a holistic approach, a global approach that you know, as we said earlier, froster are. You know the world is a small global village and Froster are on one side of the world. Tomorrow, on the other side, when you use a vendor that has a global outreach and a scale that you can grow within, because a lot of times you know you get to a big companies and big processors with 20-30 million merchants, right, you gotta have the system and the infrastructure that will support your growth. So this is where we come into play and this is why we partner with the biggest financial institutions and PSP all over the world, the biggest tech companies that you can imagine to provide our services.
Speaker 2:What would you say are the top three things that you think a company, one of your customers, should be thinking about when it comes to protecting their business?
Speaker 3:It's a good question. First, you've got to make sure that you have the right tools in place. With the right tools, you have scale, you have speed and you can see the precisions. You constantly need to be on top of everything that has happened because with the world of technology today, things are changing on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Three, four weeks ago we learned about DeepSeq. We didn't know anything about this before and how come these guys did the training for $ million dollars that the other guys you know it's like 50 billion, like something doesn't make sense, and that you know the narrative changes. So you got to be able to keep on top of of everything.
Speaker 3:Regulation is changing all over the world. You know we're seeing today. You know, with the new administration, people are you still waiting to see over the next 60 to 120 days? You know how everything is going to unfold right and at the end of the day, you know whatever is going to change there, on the federal, on the state level. For sure, you know illicit activity is illicit activity. A counterfeit is a counterfeit. So definitely, constantly stay on top of what's happening in the regulations, stay on top of what's happening with technology, stay on top of what's happening in the industry and fraudsters, because they have blogs and they have communities and, to some extent, if you think about the future, I think that one of the things that our industry needs to be better is us collaborating together between the financial institutions and the vendor. Again, easier said than done, but if we all find a way to work together, that's something that can enable additional growth for the whole industry.
Speaker 2:And you started to talk about this a little bit earlier. But what makes you guys different than your competitors out there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so first, is the tech-first approach and again, we are vertical SaaS. So again, we don't build the foundation model but we leverage the Gen A model across the entire product suite. Infrastructure enables scale, so you can start with as little as one merchant and grow to 20, 30 million merchants and the system keeps growing. The third component we talked about the business graph, which gives a lot of valuable information because you can connect using different metadata and different data sets that we have, you know, to see the fraudster and to find them in different places in the world. So the system, can you know, has like billions of data points and connections, edges they call them right all over.
Speaker 3:And the last component I would say you know, again, working with big industry players, you know what we learn is that one size doesn't fit all. You know it's sort of like 80-20 or 90-10, even though a PSP is a PSP or an acquirer is an acquirer. Sometimes you know risk tolerance or risk aversion is different and you can actually you know the system giving you the ability to customize, to configure in an unmatched manner. You know to configure to your own AUP or to your own risk aversion or tolerance.
Speaker 2:So that's definitely a big and significant differentiator here.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, let's talk about the future. So let's start big picture. What do you see as the trends in this fintech sector that we all make a living in?
Speaker 3:First, when fighting fraud, again, just lean to the future, because that constantly evolves. Second, as we said, with the nano merchants, you got to have the ability to process a lot of data points so you know how to differentiate between the known bads, known goods and how to enable business, because, at the end of the day, we are here in the business of helping you grow and, to some extent, we got your back. You go and do your business. We got your back and go and grow your business. So the data graph and the technology is very important. I think that you'll see, as we mentioned, the integration of AI across all facets of business.
Speaker 3:So we see stuff from CEO of Klarna talking about how they do business and he's very bold and blunt about this. Right, but you got to be able to implement this. We see the regulatory framework the US and the EU. We see that there are different approaches into doing business and that's definitely changing. And then I think that the last component is, again, it's the collaboration. Collaboration will be important here, because together we win. I think that we're going to start seeing more and more collaboration between the different players to achieve better results and better growth and to have a unified wall against the bad guys so let's dive into deeper maybe, into kind of the space you play in.
Speaker 2:Where do you see the fraudsters going? I mean, it feels like you know they're always a step ahead. We're always trying to catch up. So where do you think the fraudsters are headed?
Speaker 3:well, you know. Just you know to talk about some things that we see. We see some pig butchering. You probably heard about this Roman Roman scam Scams are on massive rise. You know, with deep fakes you probably read, like a year ago, about the poor guy I think it was in Singapore that you know, was sure he was talking to his CFO and he wired $25 million, the deepfake and the dabbing technology. You shouldn't be talking to A, but it's B. You see a lot of scams happening. You see a lot of times technology taking advantage of older people because they are slower to adapt. You see the usage of Gen AI with site spoofing and all these things that you got. Again, there is no way that a human being can track all this. So again, you got to fight technology with technology. But we definitely see a massive rise of fraud. Today, where a third of the world population is online, the frauds that are here they take advantage of this.
Speaker 3:Research shows roughly $100 billion of loss to online fraud on an annual basis, so definitely big. And you think about counterfeit. Counterfeit is like $2 trillion. If you think about absolute dollars are being sold, then there's a big component of no counterfeit there and when you try to break it down, you know with counterfeits, right, essentially again, let's take it today right, you know we know everything with the weight loss injections, so you know people can sell you fake ones, right. Then when you do that, what happens? Right. Or you know with some states with the abortion law, right, you know maybe people go online and buy, you know pills that they are fake ones. You know there's like health issues. So it's not just about, hey, I bought like a fake Gucci and what I do with that right, but there's like serious you know health implications. And that, you know, leads us that you got to find solutions into how you solve this problem with technology at scale, globally, with the tools, and constantly be on top.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how, I mean without sharing the secret sauce. But how do you yourself, your company and your customers like? How do you yourself, your company and your customers, how do you adapt to these changes? When you catch up to the fraudsters, then they start doing the scams and the other things. How do you adapt to those kind of changes?
Speaker 3:With the power of technology. Again, it's not like a human being can track all these changes, but with the power of technology, with the power of the flywheel that we've created, again coming with the tech-first approach. This is how the company started. So, first, always trying to keep ourselves the most up-to-date technology. Second, keeping ourselves up-to-date with everything that's happened regulatory-wise and all over the world. Keeping ourselves up to date, you know, with everything that's happened regulatory-wise and all over the world.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, you know, seeing one type of scam on one side of the world, you would assume one should assume that they're going to see it on the other side of the world in a month, a day, a week, whatever time. You know timeframe. So you got to be aware of that and talking to a likes, right, you know, like what do you see, right? So once you collaborate and hear and stuff, you can come and be prepared. But essentially the technology does a big component of that the human element and there's always going to be a human element inside the technology when we're talking about regulation and everything around this. We can also constantly inform what's happening around us.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk about you, and you walked us through a little bit of your professional journey, but maybe walk us through that again in a little more detail and maybe how you got to your role there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, I mentioned spending almost a decade in the Navy that the operational muscle got the stretch, build and stretch and it prepares you for startup life and the intensity From there. You know, post-business school, I was an investor banker, so I worked on Wall Street, sharpened my analytical skills and got to be data-oriented with you know the numbers to the T, to the point, making sure that you don't you get everything right. From there, I quit investor banking to join my buddy from the Navy Adam.
Speaker 3:Adam and Miguel built in. We worked at it literally in the first few months so I actually did serve most C-level positions. So I was COO CFO, ran a lot of the GNA function, ran international markets. I was the CEO of Latin America, launching that market. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience. You learn how to build teams, you learn how to build a brand, you learn how to grow something domestically. One city, one coast, two coasts, coast to coast. Now expanding to Europe. Everything is English-speaking now expanding to China, latin America and things like that. It was a very unique and amazing experience.
Speaker 3:2018, left that it was about time to move on. The company was doing well. I started to invest in Cirrus Seed and Cirrus A, and EverSea was just how I got to know EverSea. I started here as an investor and I invested back in 2018. Very eye on the road deal and connected to everything that the company does. Essentially, as you think about this, you know catching the bad guys online, making the world a better place.
Speaker 3:And in 2021, when I got back to Israel, the opportunity presented itself to join EverSee. Run the company, supercharge it to. You know what. You know what the company can become. So you know with that join as a CEO and I've been running the company for four years and been an amazing, an amazing ride. A lot of change again. Who knew that Gen AI is going to come? But then that comes and you gotta, you know, move fast and adjust and adapt to everything that is happening. So an interesting and fun ride. You know, adding to this everything is happening macro wise and domestic wise it makes the story much more interesting and roller coaster. But the life of an entrepreneur, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is definitely so. What are some things you're passionate about? Maybe one work related passion and one personal passion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know, work-related and it's sort of like the same narrative that we've been talking over the conversation here. It's tech and innovation. You know what we see again every month. It's like with the changes.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm trying to keep myself up to speed with all the different application layers. Not only they're related to what we do here, but generally speaking in life, stuff that used to take X time, now it's one-tenth of the time, right, so it's definitely making us much more efficient reading and looking at stuff and imagining how diseases that we thought that, all things that we thought is going to take decades to solve, now with computing, things are moving at the speed of light, as you know, the passion you know a derivative of this is, you know, with everything that we're doing here. You know, building trust in the online and the e-commerce world. Again, as a parent, you know it's definitely something that you know you want to leave something better for your kids and this company is on a great mission to do good things in the world. And in the personal side, I have a father of four. I've been spent six years so my youngest is 11 and my youngest is five Watching them grow and being involved as much as possible being on the entrepreneurial path.
Speaker 3:that's very exciting and enjoying and with that we also dedicate some of our time and funds into unprivileged kids, sick kids and trying to support as much as we can.
Speaker 2:So if someone came to you and said, hey, I'm interested in getting into the fintech space. Maybe they're just right out of university, right out of school, and they're looking to build a career, what type of advice would you give them to be successful?
Speaker 3:First, in the spirit of the whole conversation is embrace technology. Right, the risk management evolves so rapidly, right? So you've got to understand technology. You've got to understand AI and machine learning and data analytics and everything that is happening around you, because you've got to lean to the future, right, and in the past it's like I'm going to know the industry, I'm going to be good enough. No, you got to understand technology and how that, you know, plays out.
Speaker 3:Today you don't need to be a techie or know how to code in order to produce code or products, and that's a big shift, that constantly shifting. You know in front of our eyes. So that's you know the first one. Second, you know in front of our eyes. So that's, you know the first one. Second, you know build strong foundations in compliance and regulatory framework. You know, learn the framework because the principle will always stay the same. You know things can change, but the principle will stay the same, leading to the third thought about this, and always, you know, stay adaptable. Things will change, right, and regulation will change, and sometimes there is a new administration, but the framework and the way that the regulator think about things, you know. If you understand that, you know you can apply that you know in different matters and be ready. Whatever curveball you know, you get. You know from the market or from technology or from what is happening around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's some great advice. So, Ariel, we've covered a lot of ground already about you and about the company and the industry as a whole. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up the show?
Speaker 3:Sometimes we try to stay, you know, to sway away from technology. Lean to the future. The way to win, you know, the future is lean to the future and not to sway away is to keep yourself, you know, up to date. And if we all unite and, you know, do good things together, you know, I have zero doubt that, you know, we'll leave better future for our kids and for, you know, society. Working together unitely, you know, will make the world a better place and thank you so much for having me, greg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a great way to end the show. So thank you so much for being on the show. I know your time is very valuable, so, again, thank you so much. Thank you, and to all you listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments podcast. Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpaymentscom, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes. If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.