Inside HighTechZone: How Israel's Top Tech Consumer Club Built an Empire
HighTechZone, Israel's leading high-tech consumer club, has expanded rapidly through strategic acquisitions and retail ventures, helping hundreds of thousands of members navigate the high cost of living.
When Noam Busidan and Dagan Ronen founded the high-tech consumer club HighTechZone, they had a vision and an Excel spreadsheet predicting that within a year or two, 5% of high-tech employees would buy apartments through them, 3% would purchase cars, 30% would hold their credit cards, and 40% would shop online. The numbers pointed to a business with an annual turnover of one billion shekels, supposedly managed by just three employees. Today, the reality closely mirrors that initial vision, with the company employing around 300 workers, boasting about 400,000 members from 2,800 companies, and holding roughly 225,000 credit cards, reaching an estimated annual turnover of one billion shekels.
Strategic Acquisitions and Expanding Operations
This past summer, HighTechZone embarked on an aggressive acquisition spree, including the acquisition of the Koveh investment house (alongside the Mor Langermann banking firm at a valuation of 5 million shekels), a 50% stake in the online furniture brand Koala (at an estimated valuation of about 30 million shekels), and a 50% stake in the Simple Garden kindergarten chain (valued at around 5 million shekels). These joined the September 2023 purchase of WallaShops for an estimated 20 million shekels. Over recent years, the boundaries between an employee club, a credit card, a retail network, and a benefits platform in Israel have increasingly blurred as households face high living costs.
Addressing the High Cost of Living
Despite high-tech workers traditionally being perceived as a separate economic class, the industry has undergone turbulence, layoffs, and economic strain amid ongoing conflicts and high inflation. Busidan notes that even households with a net monthly income of 40,000 shekels watch their spending closely. High housing costs and large mortgages eat into disposable income, driving members to seek savings on everyday essentials as well as major financial products. The club helps active members save an average of over 6,500 shekels annually.
We look at members as consumers for whom we must generate value. In every field, we try to dismantle the business model and insert ourselves as high up the supply chain as possible. A club that only knows how to offer a cinema discount or a fashion voucher will not survive the next decade, says Busidan.
