This is what the Israeli development center behind your payments to Amazon and Airbnb looks like from the inside

Payoneer's Israeli development center in Big Glilot (Photo: Amit Gosher)

New offices launched this year (Photo: Amit Gosher)

Many know the Big Glilot complex for shopping, food, or fashion, but for Payoneer employees, this complex is also a workplace. We took an elevator to the 23rd floor of the new development center to see what 7 floors of fintech, a music studio, and a panoramic sea view look like, and to understand what happens behind the scenes at a company whose platform is used by leading companies like Amazon and Airbnb.

Let's start with a small spoiler: if you wondered what the view of the Sharon region looks like from the 23rd floor, this is the sight that caught our eye when we arrived.

The view speaks to us a lot (Photo: Ruti Mendil Chalabi)

Where did we visit? Payoneer's new offices in Big Glilot (Photo: Amit Gosher)

Number of employees: 2,000 globally, of which about 1,000 are in Israel.

Briefly about the development: a financial platform for transferring and receiving payments, including complementary financial tools.

Hello to the new open space (Photo: Payoneer)

Payoneer went public in 2021 and began trading on NASDAQ. Today, the company's products are available in 190 regions and countries with millions of customers, more than 25 sites worldwide, and support for 17 languages.

In recent months, it was reported that the Canadian fintech giant Nuvei is expected to acquire Payoneer in a deal of 2.75 billion dollars.

Nuvei is expected to acquire Payoneer in a deal of 2.75 billion dollars (Photo: Ruti Mendil Chalabi)

What are they actually working on here?

It's summer now, so many of us have already done long research, received recommendations, and then booked, for example, an apartment in Rome on Airbnb. But from the moment you click confirm booking, a process begins behind the scenes where the system identifies your local currency, collects payment, handles the fee, converts the amount, and transfers the money to your hosts in Italy.

Lior Asis Hasdai, a product team manager, explained to us that with Payoneer's system, this whole process happens literally within a few seconds and ensures a smooth, efficient, and secure operation. The same system also stands behind the scenes for millions of customers, including Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, eBay, and other giant companies, alongside medium-sized businesses (Photo: Ruti Mendil Chalabi).

Even though it involves thousands of small details and complex conversions of different currencies, whoever uses the company's system can receive the payment in their local currency in a short time, without unnecessary headaches, in a secure manner and under regulatory supervision.

Two days of work from home, a music studio, and a PlayStation room

Although they take their work seriously, Oron Cohen, a development team manager at Payoneer, told us that among the 7 floors of offices, there are quite a few corners for rest and sitting facing the sea view to relax. In our tour, we discovered a quiet library, a music and podcast room, a whole room for board games, and after we finished 2 rounds of Alias and one round of Catan, we found another room for PlayStation tournaments.

We are not musicians, but we would be happy to rehearse here (Photo: Payoneer)

Beyond that, they thought about the small details and provided internal stairs that connect all the floors. So if you want to jump for coffee or a short meeting on another floor exactly during the peak hour of the elevators, there is no need to wait.

Wait an eternity for the elevator at peak? No need (Photo: Ruti Mendil Chalabi)

So where do the teams work from? Forget the "hot desk" method. Every team here has its own permanent area, and between the floors, the areas are divided into "neighborhoods". The work model includes three days in the office, and the arrival is synchronized by teams. This way, everyone arrives at their permanent area, sits together, and works comfortably. The sweatshirt you hung on the chair and the plant you adopted will wait for you exactly where you left them.

Beyond the facilities, the company shares that what really attracts development and product people here is the challenge: to run at the pace of global fintech and crack complexities at a huge scale, in a field that is constantly changing. Add to that professional development, good teamwork, and an excellent atmosphere.

• Hybridity index: two days of work from home.

• Site dog friendly: yes.

• Important areas: balconies facing the sea, kitchen on every floor, game rooms, music studio.

• Numbers: millions of customers, support for 70 currencies, activity in 190 countries.

• Diversity: 51% women, and 40% of them in senior management positions (Photo: Ruti Mendil Chalabi).

In recent years, we have walked around dozens of high-tech offices, and we discovered that it is always fun to explore the concept behind the names of the meeting rooms. Here, they created their own version of Mini Israel between the floors: starting in Eilat and Mitzpe Ramon on the 17th floor, and as you climb up, you go north to Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona on the 23rd floor.

One of the meeting rooms we saw (Photo: Ruti Mendil Chalabi)

Everything is good and beautiful, and we really enjoyed the coffee and the climb to the Hermon, but we understood that right downstairs in the complex there is a Lego branch, so we will end the visit here for definitely justified geeky shopping purposes. After all, one of the big advantages of such a location.

Want to know more? On Payoneer's Insider page, open positions are waiting for you.