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We're hanging here at the Nasdaq right in the middle of the action in Times Square. All eyes remain on eToro, uh the popular trading platform debuted to, uh I would say a very strong response, uh yesterday. Still seeing a lot of appetite today. Uh joining me now is Yoni Assia, eToro uh CEO and co-founder. Good to see you in person for a change. Congrats on the listing.

Thank you very much. Very exciting day.

You know what's wild? I was talking to you off camera. Did your dad list a company at the Nasdaq?

Yes, it's the first ever where you have uh a father and son's uh list. So he listed his company on Nasdaq as the first software company out of Israel in 1991.

Can you believe that? That's got to blow your mind a little bit.

Well, it's really amazing. He raised back then 10 million dollars in an IPO. Uh

And you raised what? 310 million or?

It's actually the total raise including secondary is about 720.

720. Wow. That is uh that's quite the response. So as I mentioned, I mean the stock popped on debut day. I mean, do you see this as a sign of renewed investor appetite or is it something specific to what you do?

Well, I do think obviously markets have come a long way since liberation day, right? So that's not related to only Toro. Um but uh you know, we've seen a lot of great engagement and feedback from investors. The road show for us was an amazing experience. Uh we started with a great anchor investment of 100 million dollars of BlackRock, which is a very good strong signal and generally for a trading platform, volatility in the markets is generally a good thing. And we don't have supply chain dynamics uh that are impacted by tariffs. So we came into the tariffs and we felt this is like March 2020. We actually we've seen this before where institutions go out and retail investors go in and eventually it's good uh for digital businesses and for our business.

How did you know that that now is the right time? I mean it's crazy. You mentioned tariffs. I mean I know you're not selling dolls or things that Walmart's selling, but still, I mean, tariffs are tariffs.

I think for us, you know, we looked at the markets. Uh we are in capital markets 18 years. Uh we've seen a lot of different types of uh you know, market disasters from GFC to Fukushima uh to a lot of you know, to 2022 of course, which was uh a horrible year. And when we look at what's happening in the markets like our intuition was uh this is going to correct itself. Uh this is actually an opportunity to buy some stocks uh uh cheaply uh which we've seen on the platform. Uh so we were confident uh we can uh be the first uh Fintech IPO since 2021.

Did you consider staying private for longer?

Uh we we always had the vision and and dream of being listed on Nasdaq. Um we are capital markets company. Our customers trade stocks from 20 different capital markets. We're passionate about crypto markets and uh I always believe the next stage of growth is going to be uh as a public company.

Important to note, you're making money and your business what was last year revenue increased fourfold. Is there something about your business that helped to drive that surge?

Uh so we had a very good year in the markets. We transition from 2022 to 2024 to from growth of all cost strategy to profitable growth. We scaled our margins and profitability from more than 100 million in 23 to over 300 million profit in 2024, uh which was 159% growth year over year of profitability. And I think generally every time the markets are very active and we can scale our business and of course, also part of the business is crypto. We were very early to crypto buying Bitcoin at $5. So the fact that we had crypto uh as a great tailwind uh last year which was uh a great addition. Crypto at $5. We bought a Bitcoin for $5. Uh unfortunately, not enough.

You bought crypto at $5?

We bought eToro uh Bitcoin for $5. Uh unfortunately not enough.

All right, yeah. So so when investors a few months from now or whatever it is you're going to report earnings, but investors want to know more about eToro, should they view you first as a play on Bitcoin and the future of crypto assets?

The future of capital markets. Uh we are in capital markets, we consider crypto a part of capital markets you can trade. Stocks, derivatives, crypto, and the unique part of eToro is not only self-directed trading, but you can actually see the performance of the top investors on the platform, people who generated double digit returns with a long track record on eToro and use our unique technology to actually automatically copy them and invest in our smart portfolios as well. I the real opportunity here is the global transformation of wealth from older generations to younger generations. US alone it's $84 trillion moving to Gen Y. Uh uh and Europe That we are Gen Y. I think we both are. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate that. But it's also in Europe our biggest market is $60 trillion opportunity to help people manage their investments, their trading, their savings in a digital native way.

I've gotten to know your competitor and their team, Vlad over at Robin Hood and they've made a very clear point. They have wanted to expand more into asset management. They've made acquisitions. Are you going to run that Robin Hood playbook?

Uh I think they're running my playbook. Um I think, you know, over time, you know, we've we already are scaled globally. Robin Hood is mostly US. We are in 12 different regions including the US. We have offices in Europe, UK, Australia, Singapore, UAE. Uh and I'm very excited about the path of growing our business now, entering into savings and wealth management, retirement as well in two of our markets, both Australia and the UK. We think the opportunity is very, very big uh to eventually become the investment apps uh of our younger generations.

In the prospectus, you you you mentioned that um potential conflicts from uh what's going on in Israel. Now the company was what founded in Israel? Are you do you want to keep the headquarters there? You know, how does that how do you think about risk to the business by being positioned?

eToro is a global company. Uh we have offices uh in 10 different locations uh and uh we've always managed very, very well our what's called BCP business continuity planning, which is a part of running a global business, trading 24/7, serving customers from 75 different countries. Uh and we'll continue to scale all of our global offices as we grow.

As a a founder, you founded this company with your brother. What has it been like being in Israel, uh trying to grow a business as fast as you've been growing with it, um while everything that has been going on in that country? It has to mean a lot to you and you have to of course take it very personally.

So I I I think generally like the startup tech community in Israel really wanted to show how resilient we are and how much we're supportive of uh our people, of our employees. Uh we also have an office uh in the Ukraine where we always help our employees in any uh scenario. Uh and I think the tech community sort of came in both made sure that they're helping the cause along there, but also showing the markets that uh we're resilient, uh that we'll continue to grow and focus on our business to do what we can do to support the economy.