May Nechushtan

May Nechushtan built her career at the intersection of financial-market analysis and Israeli fintech before moving into venture investing. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy, Political Science and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and served in the Israel Defense Forces as a Platoon Sergeant and Basic Training Squad Commander. She began her professional career in the Research Department of the Bank of Israel, where she monitored and analyzed the Israeli financial market and contributed to policy and regulatory recommendations — grounding her early in the mechanics of financial systems and regulation.

She then became Fintech Sector Lead and Analyst at Start-Up Nation Central, the non-profit that connects the global business community with the Israeli tech ecosystem. In that role she authored Israel's Fintech Industry Report (including the widely cited 2018 edition) and published extensively on Israeli fintech, insurtech, and blockchain/crypto regulation. Her writing mapped the growth of Israel's fintech sector — noting, for example, that the first half of 2018 set records with more than $400M raised across 45 deals — and positioned Israel as a hub for both fintech disruptors and incumbents.

From Start-Up Nation Central she moved into venture capital as an Investment Associate at Moneta VC, Tel Aviv's most active fintech fund (founded in 2015 by Adoram Gaash), where she focused on fintech, insurtech, and financial-services deals. She was later quoted by S&P Global Market Intelligence, in her Moneta capacity, attributing the strength of Israel's fintech industry to its deep base of local and foreign investors.

She subsequently earned an MBA from Columbia Business School (2020–2022) and transitioned out of venture into a corporate strategy role. She is currently a Strategic Partnerships Manager for Google Maps at Google, based in New York — meaning her investor activity at Moneta VC is historical rather than current.

• Sector-first, fintech specialist: Backs financial-technology companies across fintech, insurtech, and FinCyber — the core mandate of Moneta VC, which describes itself as having invested in "over 40 world-class fintech companies."
• Stage: Moneta invests through two parallel vehicles — a Seed fund and a Growth fund — supporting companies "across all stages of their journey," from Seed and early-stage through Series A/B.
• Check size: Roughly $500K to $6M, sized to the fund and stage.
• What earns a yes: Data-transformation and financial-services startups, typically with Israeli technical DNA. Her own published thesis emphasized Israel's structural advantages — deep talent in relevant technology fields, an innovative culture, and the diversity of solutions — plus a strong local-and-foreign investor base as the engine of the ecosystem.
• Regulatory fluency: Coming from the Bank of Israel and having written multiple pieces on fintech/blockchain regulation, she brought unusually strong comfort with the regulatory dimension of financial products.