In the polished corridors of Transact 2025, where embedded finance and AI overlays filled the agenda, Ezra Gabay didn’t come with a pitch deck. He came with a story.
“I’ve been in this business for 25 years,” he says. “First Data, tribal casinos, credit card portfolios—I’ve sold them all.” Now, as Chief Payment and Banking Officer at GFT Rewards, Gabay is applying those lessons to a different kind of scale: digital-first, real-world-relevant, and rooted in grocery aisles rather than boardroom dreams.
GFT Rewards powers digital coupons and product-linked offers across over 30,000 US grocery stores. The company is behind the real-time discounts that appear on your phone as you shop—hyper-relevant, geo-tagged, and frictionless at checkout. On the back end, 40,000 brand partnerships feed this ecosystem.
“The payments part? That’s just the rails,” Gabay says. “What matters is what you build on top.”
A bet without the buzzwords
Gabay didn’t join GFT via a pitch or a hiring process. He got a call from Mitch—founder of GFT Rewards—who needed a partner who knew how to navigate the payment world. Gabay sold everything and jumped in. “I just said yes,” he recalls.
His growth plan for GFT is blunt: “Sell it for four billion in six years.” No IPO talk. No “scale to infinity.” Just a specific number and a timeline.
“We’re not trying to go to the moon,” he adds. “I’ve done that. I’ve done casinos. I’ve done municipalities. This is about building something real.”
From greenhouse to grocery tech
The idea of “real” comes up a lot. During COVID, Gabay didn’t try to digitize his way through the crisis. He built a $50,000 hydroponic greenhouse in his backyard, stocked it with vegetables, and gave food away to neighbors and friends.
“I thought the world was ending,” he says. “So I grew food and fed people. It was the only thing that felt right.”
His business instincts have always been sharp—Gabay is quick to assess risk, evaluate capital constraints, and see through bloated margins. But in recent years, he’s turned those instincts toward utility. “We’re in the penny business,” he says. “We make a lot of money, but what are you really doing with it?”
Grounded by experience, wary of acceleration
GFT Rewards is not chasing flash. It doesn’t pretend to be Web3-enabled or AI-native. It’s focused on giving CPG brands performance-based data and helping consumers save money when it matters. That clarity runs through the business and the person steering it.
Still, Gabay has strong views on where the world is heading—and how fast. He’s concerned about AI’s impact on employment, the addictive tempo of modern media, and the erosion of deep thinking. “SpongeBob,” he says, “that’s the tempo of our world now. No one reads anymore. They just look at pictures.”
He isn’t prescribing solutions. But he is doubling down on human connection: fireplace conversations, barefoot walks, flower foraging. “You want to reconnect? Take your shoes off.”
A film about friendship—and a business built on it
In his spare time, Gabay invests in film. His latest production, Eleanor the Great, tells the story of two 95-year-old best friends in Brooklyn. Scarlett Johansson is an executive producer. They’re eyeing Cannes.
Why a film like that?
“Because we all need something real.”
Gabay doesn’t posture. He doesn’t pitch. He builds. Whether it’s coupon infrastructure for 40,000 brands or tomatoes for his neighbors, his work isn’t about scale for scale’s sake.
It’s about feeding something—someone—with purpose.
🌟 Spotlight on Liberis
Don’t leave Vegas without sitting down with the team behind one of the most compelling embedded finance platforms in the industry.
With their Create Journey API, Liberis enables platforms to offer personalized, pre-approved funding options to their SMB customers—at scale, and with a single integration. They’re already powering embedded lending experiences for partners across e-commerce, accounting, and payments.
“We’re embedding lending where businesses already operate—and using GenAI to do it more intelligently.” – Nima Montazeri, Chief Product Officer, Liberis
— The Unofficially ETA Transact Team
SPONSORED BY
Not affiliated with ETA Transact Events
Bobsguide is a Contentive publication in the Events division