Former Instacart and Uber payments exec Ofek Lavian joins Forage

Forage, which provides a path for grocers and other merchants to accept EBT payments online, has hired Ofek Lavian as Chief Operating Officer.

Lavian will oversee the day to day operations, leading and scaling teams including product, operations, and partnerships.

Prior to joining Forage, he led the Payments and Commerce product teams at Instacart, with highlights including the launch of new payment methods such as EBT/SNAP (food stamps) and PayPal, Instacart gift cards, prepaid cards, stored value, and a co-branded credit card with Chase (launching later this year).

Before Instacart, Lavian was a Product Manager for Payments at Uber.

While there, he led the launches of key payments products including Tipping, the Uber Visa credit card, Uber gift cards, Pay with Venmo, PayPal, and Apple Pay.

“Ofek is one of the most knowledgeable payments experts in Silicon Valley – what he accomplished in two years at Instacart transformed the entire payments side of their business,” says Justin Intal, CEO and Co-Founder, Forage.

“We are beyond excited for him to join our executive team and accelerate our timeline to help grocers and merchants of all sizes accept EBT payments online.”

“Ofek is joining us at a very critical period in Forage’s growth, and his expertise in the payments space from working at tech leaders like Instacart and Uber will help fast track our product development and partnership plans.”

“Forage is laying the foundation to solve a critical gap for the millions of Americans that rely on SNAP benefits to be able to buy groceries online,” says Lavian,

“The opportunity here is enormous. Over the past two years at Instacart, I’ve witnessed first hand the essential need for online grocery during the pandemic, especially for this underserved population that has struggled with food insecurity.”

“Forage’s payments technology has the power to democratise access for basic needs such as groceries and I couldn’t be more thrilled to work at a company that will bring that change to life.”

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