Avi Turgeman, Kfir Yeshayahu & Vikash Sharma: Rewriting the Rules of Digital Trust
Avi Turgeman and Kfir Yeshayahu are leading a global charge against online fraud, creating a safer digital world with smarter technology and sharper instincts.
For some leaders, ambition is the driving force behind their success. For Avi Turgeman, it was a necessity. While serving in Israel’s military intelligence, Avi witnessed the rapid evolution of digital threats and the slow response of the world. This experience fueled his vision to create proactive, not reactive, security solutions. He founded BioCatch, a behavioral biometric platform that earned the trust of banks worldwide, but he knew the fight was far from over. Attackers continued to evolve, and Avi realized that true safety meant stopping fraud before it ever had a chance to begin. This idea was the catalyst for IronVest.
At its core, IronVest operates on a powerful principle: security should be invisible, not intrusive. It should protect users without making them jump through hoops. To turn this vision into a global reality, Avi partnered with Kfir Yeshayahu, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Kfir is a renowned voice in the field of fraud prevention, and his expertise is instrumental in bringing IronVest’s innovative technology to life.
Avi’s vision extends beyond fraud prevention; it’s about creating peace of mind for both consumers and financial institutions. He believes that security should enhance the user experience, not complicate it. When this balance is achieved, it doesn’t just prevent fraud; it builds a foundation of trust that makes digital banking experiences genuinely preferable for everyone.
Kfir Yeshayahu’s role as CTO is critical to this mission. He is the architect behind the technology that makes IronVest’s vision possible. Kfir’s leadership ensures that the platform is not only effective but also user-friendly and scalable. His approach to technology is rooted in a deep understanding of both the threat landscape and the need for a seamless user experience. Under his guidance, the engineering teams are empowered to build robust solutions that anticipate and neutralize threats, from deepfakes to SIM swaps, without ever compromising on privacy or ease of use.
Joining this leadership is Vikash Sharma, a trusted Business Advisor, strategic thinker, and one of the most respected voices in fraud prevention. With over 22 years of experience across continents, Vikash is leading IronVest’s expansion in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. His focus is clear: to give banks and fintechs a tool they can rely on, even against fast-changing threats like deepfakes, SIM swaps, and identity fraud. His expertise strengthens IronVest’s global reach and reinforces its mission of delivering security that inspires confidence across markets.
Together, Avi, Kfir, and Vikash are building more than a product; they are building trust in a digital world where fear has become the norm. By prioritizing innovation, insight, and a commitment to user experience, they are protecting what matters most: people’s identities, data, and peace of mind.
Let us learn more about their journey:
A Vision Built on Insight and Discipline
Avi’s leadership is defined by his ability to spot what matters before it becomes a problem. He constantly monitors two fronts: the real-world methods attackers use to succeed and the quiet technological breakthroughs that can provide a breakthrough, such as biometrics and real-time video analysis. He also stays attuned to the ever-changing expectations of customers. This dual focus allows his team to run rapid proof-of-concepts and move forward only with solutions that are demonstrably safer and smoother than anything else on the market.
Early skepticism from industry leaders about the invasiveness of continuous biometrics didn’t deter Avi. Instead, it pushed the team to double down on privacy-by-design. Under Kfir’s technical leadership, the system was architected to ensure that no raw biometric data is ever stored and all processing is decentralized. This approach not only addressed compliance concerns but also maintained a seamless user experience, proving that security and simplicity can indeed go hand in hand.
To ensure the vision remains grounded in reality, Avi and Kfir translate abstract goals into measurable outcomes: fewer fraud losses, reduced manual reviews, and higher completion rates. When teams across the organization see these key performance indicators (KPIs) moving in the right direction, alignment follows naturally.
Spotting What Matters Before It Matters
To bring this vision to life, Avi focuses on identifying the signals that often go unnoticed. He observes two fronts in parallel: how attackers are succeeding in the real world, and which technologies are quietly reaching performance breakthroughs, such as biometrics or real-time video analysis at the edge.
At the same time, he pays close attention to changing customer behavior and expectations. His team runs rapid proof-of-concepts with design partners, tests them in live user flows, and moves forward only with solutions that prove to be both safer and smoother than what exists today. It is a disciplined approach, rooted in real-world insight and shaped by a commitment to simplicity and trust.
Strengthening the Vision Through Challenge
While refining this disciplined approach, Avi encountered early skepticism. Some industry leaders believed that continuous biometrics would be too invasive or too complex to deploy.
Instead of shifting course, he deepened his focus on privacy-by-design. The system was built to ensure that no raw biometric data was stored and processing was decentralized. This not only addressed compliance concerns but also maintained a seamless user experience.
What seemed like pushback became a turning point. It helped sharpen the system’s architecture and the way his team communicated its value, proving that security and simplicity can go hand in hand.
Driving Alignment Through Measurable Impact
Building on that clarity of purpose, Avi made sure the vision stayed grounded in outcomes that mattered. He translated abstract goals into specific, measurable results, fewer fraud losses, reduced manual reviews, and higher completion rates. When teams across product, fraud operations, compliance, and customer experience saw their KPIs move in the right direction, alignment followed naturally.
To maintain trust as innovation scaled, he and his team established clear guardrails: privacy, transparency, and regulatory readiness. These principles reassured stakeholders that progress would never come at the cost of user trust.
Balancing Innovation with Discipline
With trust as the foundation, Avi took a thoughtful approach to innovation. He encouraged small, contained experiments, initiatives designed to show value quickly and then scale with confidence. Inside the organization, his team created space to learn from failure, as long as it led to insight. At the same time, they made clear decisions to stop efforts that did not move key metrics.
This method allowed bold ideas to thrive within a structure of disciplined engineering and measurable impact. In a sector where reliability is essential, Avi ensured that innovation was always paired with evidence, so long-term stability and growth remained intact.
Empowering Experts to Build What Matters
To turn bold ideas into working products, Avi and Kfir have assembled a team of deeply committed experts, fraud specialists, machine-vision PhDs, and seasoned product builders. These teams are given direct access to real customer challenges and are tasked with solving problems, not just delivering features. Kfir’s leadership as CTO is particularly evident here, as he fosters an environment where bold ideas thrive within a structure of disciplined engineering and measurable impact. This approach ensures that innovation is always paired with evidence, guaranteeing long-term stability and growth.
As the team moves toward their long-term vision of continuous, action-based authentication, they remain grounded in a clear sense of purpose. Priorities are chosen based on their ability to move the company closer to this goal, and features that don’t deliver measurable short-term value are deferred. This disciplined focus ensures that long-term objectives are always supported by short-term wins.
Anticipating emerging threats like deepfakes, the team, under Kfir’s technical guidance, accelerated the development of multi-frame liveness and action-binding capabilities. These were rigorously tested to ensure synthetic presence could be detected and stopped mid-session, protecting banks before these new threats became a major problem.
Avi and Kfir’s leadership is about shaping a safer digital future. They aspire to create an industry where security is so invisible, dependable, and humane that banks can confidently say, “We protected you without you even noticing.” For them, the ultimate legacy would be to see continuous, action-based authentication become the standard practice, making the digital world safer for the next generation.
“I want to leave behind an industry where ‘security’ is invisible, trustworthy, and humane, where banks can say, ‘We protected you without you even noticing.'” — Kfir Yeshayahu, CTO, IronVest
Staying Focused While Building for the Future
With strong teams in place and a clear sense of purpose, Avi kept the larger vision front and center. He anchored everyone on a north star, continuous, action-based authentication. Each quarter, the teams chose specific priorities that moved them closer to that goal.
If a feature did not advance this path or deliver measurable value to banks in the short term, it was deferred. This disciplined approach ensured that long-term objectives stayed grounded, while short-term wins helped maintain momentum and fund the broader mission.
Anticipating Threats Before They Hit
As the teams moved steadily toward their long-term vision, Avi also stayed alert to shifts that could derail progress. When deepfakes began moving from novelty to serious threat, he anticipated they would soon target high-value banking transactions.
To stay ahead, he accelerated the development of multi-frame liveness and action-binding capabilities. These were tested rigorously to ensure synthetic presence could be detected and stopped mid-session. The goal was clear: protect banks before deepfakes became their next major loss driver.
Using Technology to Deepen Trust, Not Dependency
While tackling emerging threats like deepfakes, Avi remained equally focused on the long game, choosing the right innovations to support it.
He evaluates each new technology by a simple but firm standard: does it help banks serve and protect their customers while creating measurable business value? Solutions that strengthen the bank-customer relationship are embraced. Those that risk building third-party dependencies, and in turn weaken that relationship, are set aside.
Gauging Real Progress
To understand if the vision is working, Avi looks at outcomes through three clear lenses: security, operations, and experience.
- In security, progress means a reduction in confirmed fraud and first-party disputes.
- In operations, it shows up as fewer manual reviews, leaner alert queues, and less tool sprawl.
- In experience, it reflects fewer step-ups, lower abandonment, and higher completion in high-risk flows.
If these shifts are visible across their banking partners, it confirms that the chosen path is delivering impact where it matters.
Staying Ahead of Modern Leadership Challenges
Avi sees today’s business environment as one where leaders must respond to three rising pressures: the speed at which threats emerge, stricter regulatory oversight, and a sharp drop in customer tolerance for friction.
To meet these challenges, he stays deeply connected to the evolving threat landscape, integrates privacy and compliance from the start, and ensures security is never placed on the customer’s shoulders. By focusing on transparency and measurable outcomes, Avi creates clarity even in times of uncertainty. This mindset supports the larger vision, delivering secure, efficient, and seamless experiences across their partner ecosystem.
Shaping a Safer Digital Future
For Avi, the long-term vision goes hand in hand with daily execution. He hopes to form an industry where security is invisible, dependable, and humane, where banks can say, “We protected you without you even noticing.”
He aspires to make continuous, action-based authentication the norm for the next generation. If future consumers experience safer digital environments because this has become standard practice, then that, to him, would be a legacy fulfilled.
Avi and Vikash’s vision is rooted in practicality, purpose, and long-term impact. By striving to make security feel seamless yet effective, he hopes to influence not just systems and processes, but mindsets. His approach reflects a belief that real innovation lies in what quietly works in the background, protecting people, building trust, and forming a future where safety is a given, not a feature.