597: Why RPA is Attracting More Than Capital | Tomer Pinchas, CFO, Kryon

Last February, following his arrival on a flight to Israel, Tomer Pinchas recalls receiving a startling text from the Israeli government. Having recently visited Italy, the text explained, passenger Pinchas must now agree to enter self-quarantine for a period two weeks. As CFO of Kryon—a Tel Aviv start-up specializing in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)—Pinchas, like most business travelers, was well aware of the recent spread of COVID-19. Still, the order to self-quarantine seemed aggressive to Pinchas, who at the time could not have imagined that in a few short weeks he would be sheltering in place with the rest of Israel. “The actions taken by Israel were quite drastic and came pretty much a few weeks before the rest of the world, but what we learned during the process was that we can work anyplace—and sometimes we can be even more organized,” says Pinchas, who believes that a new business environment is beginning to come into view. So far, the remote workforce is perhaps the new environment’s most pronounced characteristic. However, some of the more interpersonal attributes of doing business may be compromised. “Due to the fact that we work with enterprise customers and many things that we use to install are on-premise, we would often meet the customer face-to-face, so this will be kind of challenging in the new environment)” explains Pinchas, who says that while face-to-face selling will likely be curtailed, Kryon’s RPA offerings will find new traction among companies seeking new tools to help automate repetitive tasks and help them to better engage and respond to customer demands. Fortunately, the RPA start-up closed on its latest round of financing within weeks of Israel sheltering in place. “I really believe that you need to raise money when you can and not necessarily when you need it,” remarks Pinchas, who believes that as long as a company has a strategy that it’s prepared to execute—and not just an appetite for cash—the timing of a capital raise should not matter. Says Pinchas: “Don’t wait for the right time, because the majority of the time, there’s no such thing.” – Jack Sweeney