Ten Bis CEO Launches New Benefits Card and Takes Aim at Competitors

For years, Ten Bis was almost synonymous with lunch from the employer. However, while the market progressed — Wolt changed delivery habits, and Cibus expanded the world of benefits — Ten Bis remained identified only with that meal.

Now it is trying to change this reality and open the brand to new worlds, from discounts and cashback to fashion and tourism. "The world of employees has changed," says Ten Bis CEO Tomer Peper in an interview with Globes. "Once, the benefit from the employer was lunch, and today employees expect much more. You need to provide value beyond working hours."

As part of the move, Ten Bis card users will be able to receive a refund on purchases as well as a 10% discount at a variety of chains and brands in the fields of fashion, pharma, tourism, and lifestyle. According to the company's announcement, unlike the traditional meal benefit, which is identified mainly with working hours, the new benefits will be available throughout the day, on weekends, and on vacations.

Payment will be made via a digital wallet, to which the user can connect their existing credit card, without the need to issue an additional card. According to the company, the connection will allow employees to enjoy the benefits offered by Ten Bis, while simultaneously continuing to accumulate points or benefits within their consumer club.

"The vision is that the value the employee receives from Ten Bis will not end during working hours, and will continue even when they are at the mall, on vacation, or at a hotel," explains Peper. "Employers do not have the attention span to work with dozens of suppliers, so we centralize it in one place."

Tomer Peper

Personal: 43 years old, married and a father of two, lives in Tel Aviv.

Professional: Holds a bachelor's degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Tel Aviv University. At the end of 2006, he joined Ten Bis, first as a programmer and then as a product manager and in other roles. In 2021, he was appointed CEO.

Something else: A fan of snowboarding and mountain biking, and plays in a band (guitars and piano).

---

"Not a credit card"

What is changing in the new card? "It behaves like a payment card, but it is not a credit card," explains Peper. "We built a technological solution that gives some of the advantages of a credit card, without giving the employee a new credit limit and without putting them through the underwriting processes required for a regular card. It took us a lot of time, money, and investment to get there."

According to Peper, the new route will not change the cost for the employer. "The company does not need to do anything. Not fill out forms, not go through an implementation process, and not increase the budget."

So who will fund the discounts and cashback?

"Businesses pay a commission, similar to the deal Ten Bis has with restaurants. The trade-off is that they get customer traffic from us."

Businesses are already flooded with customer clubs that demand discounts and commissions from them. Why should they join another one?

"Because we can bring them significant traffic. A business will join if it sees that customers are coming, and that transactions are being created that would not have happened without us. Ten Bis is part of the daily routine of many employees, and the idea is to take this connection to other areas as well."

---

The conceptual challenge

Peper grew up inside Ten Bis. He started as a programmer, was appointed VP of Technology and Product in 2012, and was later appointed co-CEO. After the company was sold to the Dutch delivery giant Takeaway in 2018 (which later merged with Just Eat), he established its innovation and development center for business operations in Israel.

In 2021, in the midst of the COVID lockdowns, Peper was called to manage the entire Israeli operation of the orange delivery service. Today, the company, whose offices are in Ramat Gan, has about 230 employees. Over half a million employees in Israel are subscribed to Ten Bis.

Last February, he launched a pilot of a card under the Just Eat brand in Beersheba, and after Operation "Lion's Roar," the pilot expanded to Ashdod as well — with the target audience being private customers, not companies.

Why do you need another brand?

"Although our core is the activity with companies and employees, Just Eat is a brand intended from the outset for private customers. The public is thirsty for an alternative, and we are giving Wolt a very good fight."

The Ten Bis delivery system was launched at the end of 2019, a few months before COVID. At the beginning, the couriers were employed as salaried employees — a relatively unusual model in the industry, where most competitors rely on independent workers. Last year, Ten Bis changed direction, and today all its couriers are freelancers.

For years, you emphasized that the couriers are salaried employees with a pension and national insurance. Why did you give that up?

"The concept was that it is important to take care of the couriers as salaried employees, with a pension, national insurance, and other rights. This was also the way the parent company operated in some markets. But then COVID came, many people were on unpaid leave, and because of the requirement to be salaried employees, they had a problem working for us in parallel, and we had difficulty recruiting.

"Over the years, the couriers themselves asked us to allow them to work as independent contractors, so they could also work on other platforms and in other jobs. The result is that today we have about 5,500 couriers across the country, compared to about 1,000 before the change. This allows us to offer better service and cover more areas."

Where are you still having difficulty?

"We have a conceptual challenge. We have two types of restaurants: those that use our delivery system, and those that deliver themselves. When we perform the delivery, the arrival time is around 30-something minutes. But when the business delivers, there is not always tracking of the courier.

"From the perspective of the customer who ordered, everything appears in the same app, so they do not necessarily distinguish between the cases. We are building tracking solutions also for orders supplied by the business, but it is complex because it is a very fragmented market."

Why don't you force the restaurants to use your couriers?

"Because we want to give them a choice. If a restaurant already has a delivery service that works well, it can continue to use it. If it doesn't, we offer it a service. This, in my view, is part of the fairness of the platform."

---

"Cibus is in a panic"

Alongside the front in the B2C worlds against Wolt, Ten Bis is also managing an older battle against Cibus for employee budgets. Expanding the card to fashion, tourism, and leisure areas also enters it into the territory of consumer clubs and credit card companies. "Our advantage is that Ten Bis is already inside the companies, and on the employees' phones. We are not starting from zero," says Peper.

But Cibus is also sitting inside many organizations and offers benefits beyond food.

"True, there is competition, and it is good. An open market is a healthier market. On the other hand, there are constant attempts to leak things and undermine a market that is already very dynamic. You can quote me saying that Cibus is in a panic."

Peper is referring to the cross-campaigns recently launched by Wolt and Cibus, in which the companies "enter" each other after the business separation that occurred a few months ago. Wolt calls Cibus "an ex that won't let go," and Cibus claims that the benefits service that Wolt launched is not taking off.

Saying that Cibus is in a panic is a pretty sharp statement. What is it based on?

"On what we see in the field, on the reactions to our moves, and on the discourse in the market. I don't think competition should scare anyone, but it is clear that the changes we are making are affecting the competitors. There is no doubt that we ourselves have gone through challenging years, and now we are making moves that will greatly change the game."

You are not afraid of losing direction?

"No. The activity with the companies remains the core, and the technology allows us to take it to places that were not possible in the past. For years, when an employee said 'I have Ten Bis,' everyone understood what they meant. Now the question is whether it is possible to take this trust and this habit, and give them a broader meaning."

No response was received from Wolt. Cibus chose not to comment.