Political Audit: Fiverr

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

CEO Micha Kaufman’s most-quoted public political statement - “We are witnessing the worst value destruction in Israel’s history” - was made on 5 April 2023 in reference to Israel’s judicial-overhaul crisis and its economic and reputational impact on the tech sector, not to the Israel-Gaza war, and drew a comparison to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank ¹. Following the 7 October 2023 attacks, Fiverr’s only identified corporate statement appeared in its Q3 2023 earnings release of 9 November 2023, describing “the unexpected and appalling atrocities that happened in Israel on October 7” and the company’s efforts to help employees and the Fiverr community reach safety, framed within a financial and operational risk disclosure rather than as a standalone geopolitical position statement ²³. No subsequent standalone corporate statement on the war beyond the 2023–2024 disclosures reviewed has been identified. In the Q4 2023 earnings call (~February 2024), Kaufman’s only further reference bundled the two ongoing conflicts generically, citing “increasing geopolitical uncertainties, with the ongoing war in Ukraine and the onset of war in the Middle East,” without elaboration on Gaza or Palestinian civilian impact ⁴. The same Q3 2023 release stated that Fiverr’s business “is conducted primarily outside of Israel,” a framing in tension with the company’s roughly 78%-Israel-based workforce and with other public material emphasizing its deep Israeli roots ²¹. In a venture-capital podcast interview, Kaufman discussed Fiverr’s consumer marketing strategy, including an $8 million Super Bowl advertising campaign, without addressing the Israel-Gaza conflict ⁵. By contrast, in 2022 Fiverr launched a dedicated “Support Ukraine” storefront, enabled immediate cash-outs for Ukrainian sellers, ran a dedicated support team, and directed store fees to the Ukrainian Red Cross and World Central Kitchen, explicitly stating the company “stands in solidarity with Ukraine” ⁶⁷⁸. No public evidence identified of a comparable Fiverr program benefiting Gazan or Palestinian freelancers. No public evidence identified of a Fiverr corporate statement on the 2020 racial-justice/BLM protests. No public evidence identified of Fiverr describing its Israel operations as a “unique geopolitical partnership” in annual or ESG reporting; the company’s public framing instead centers on standard commercial operations and tax-policy commentary by the CEO ¹.

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Fiverr’s headquarters is located at 8 Eliezer Kaplan St., Tel Aviv, within undisputed sovereign Israeli territory rather than contested territory ⁹¹. No public evidence identified of Fiverr offices, subsidiaries, resellers, or dealership networks located in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, or Israeli settlements. Both of Fiverr’s acquired Israeli subsidiaries - Stoke Talent, acquired for $95 million in November 2021, and AutoDS, acquired 31 July 2024 for an undisclosed sum - are described in primary sourcing as Tel Aviv–based operations ¹⁰¹¹¹². Fiverr does not appear in the OHCHR Database of Business Enterprises Involved in Israeli Settlement Activity, per the June 2023 update and the confirmation of the September 2025 database update, both of which name a fixed roster of roughly 158 firms without Fiverr among them ¹³¹⁴. The 2025 UN Special Rapporteur report “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” was not found to name Fiverr in the sections reviewed ¹⁵. Fiverr likewise does not appear in the Al-Haq/Profundo “Don’t Buy into Occupation” company lists, including the November 2024 annex and the November 2025 report naming roughly 104 companies such as Amazon, Boeing, Cellebrite, Airbnb, and Bank Hapoalim ¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸. Fiverr is nonetheless named on several informal, grassroots boycott/BDS-adjacent directories, including Stop the Palestinian Genocide, BDS by The Witness, and the Masjid Al-Aqsa boycott list, with cited grounds consistently centering on Israeli incorporation and tax contribution, its majority-Israel-based workforce, founders’ military backgrounds, and the Lev Echad wartime initiative, rather than any settlement-specific operational nexus ^19202122. No public evidence identified of any official Fiverr corporate reply, rebuttal, or policy change made in response to these boycott campaigns.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of HR actions, terminations, or legal disputes involving Fiverr staff over pro-Palestinian speech, symbols, or union activity. Multiple informal social-media posts and the independent OpenIntel research profile assert that Fiverr account suspensions have been documented for sellers mentioning Gaza or Palestine, and that “political usage” terms-of-service restrictions have been “applied selectively to Palestinian expression” ¹⁹. However, this claim rests solely on secondary advocacy/aggregator characterization and unverified individual social-media posts, with no independent NGO investigation, academic study, or regulatory inquiry located to corroborate it, and should be treated as unverified pending primary documentation ¹⁹. Fiverr operates as a digital-services marketplace with no physical goods supply chain; No public evidence identified of product labeling or sourcing controversies tied to settlements, reflecting the fact that this category is not structurally applicable to Fiverr’s business model.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Fiverr is listed in Startup Nation Finder, an Israeli tech-ecosystem database operated by Start-Up Nation Central, a body associated with promoting Israel’s international “Start-Up Nation” brand, and Kaufman is separately listed there as an active Israeli angel investor ²³²⁴. No public evidence identified of Fiverr accepting formal state honors, hosting government officials, or holding a documented “Brand Israel” campaign sponsorship role beyond this ecosystem-directory listing. Co-founder Shai Wininger’s background has been associated in secondary profiles with Unit 8200 military-intelligence framing, and CEO Micha Kaufman has been described in secondary sourcing as having served in an IDF naval commando capacity (Shayetet 13) ¹⁹; this military-background narrative appears in journalistic and biographical treatment of the founders but not in Fiverr’s own official investor-relations bios, which describe leadership’s military service only generically without operational detail ²⁵²⁶.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

No public evidence identified of Fiverr-registered US federal lobbying activity. OpenSecrets’ vendor/recipient profile for “Fiverr Inc” shows Fiverr as a vendor paid approximately $19,487 by political campaigns in the 2024 cycle for services rendered - that is, campaigns using Fiverr’s freelance marketplace - rather than evidence of a Fiverr corporate PAC or of Fiverr making political contributions ²⁷. No public evidence identified of a Fiverr-affiliated PAC registered with the FEC. No public evidence identified of direct corporate donations by Fiverr to FIDF, JNF/KKL, Regavim, Im Tirtzu, or settlement organizations, a finding corroborated even by the critical OpenIntel profile, which explicitly states no documented corporate donations to these bodies were found ¹⁹. Fiverr co-founded and headquartered “Lev Echad” (One Heart) at its Tel Aviv HQ from October 2023, alongside HiBob and monday.com, mobilizing a volunteer force initially reported at 30,000 and later at roughly 50,000 across more than twenty physical aid locations, serving both displaced Israeli civilians and, per NoCamels’ description, members of the military among recipients of transportation, accommodation, medical, and food assistance ^2829303132. Costs of running the operation were covered by the founding companies, with monday.com donating the coordination technology platform ²⁹³². This is a confirmed, company-headquartered wartime mobilization with a mixed civilian/military beneficiary base; whether Lev Echad remains active as of mid-2026 is not confirmed in sources reviewed.

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Fiverr International Ltd. has been listed on the NYSE (FVRR) since 2019 and is headquartered in Israel, with founding documents and disclosures describing a standard commercial digital-services marketplace mission and no state golden-share or explicit charter language tying its mission to advancing Israeli state geopolitical goals ⁹. Bessemer Venture Partners has held a board seat since January 2011 via partner Adam Fisher but is explicitly not a controlling shareholder, and no single party controls the board or shareholder base ²⁵²⁶. Fiverr benefits from Israeli “Preferred Technology Enterprise” tax status, yielding an approximate 12% effective tax rate on IP-attributed income, and Kaufman has publicly framed Israeli incorporation as a deliberate choice “to create jobs here that ultimately benefit the tax system” ¹¹⁹.

Executive & Leadership Footprint

No public evidence identified of verifiable personal donations by Kaufman or Wininger to FIDF, JNF, or other military-welfare or settlement funds; a claim that Kaufman made personal donations to Israeli defence efforts post-October 7 appears only in the OpenIntel secondary profile with the recipient unconfirmed and should be treated as unverified ¹⁹. A characterization of Kaufman as “a staunch zionist who supports the IDF” originates from an activist X/Twitter account, citing only a link to Kaufman’s own Twitter account as support, with no specific quotes or documented actions independently verified, and this claim should be treated as weakly sourced ³³²². Board member Adam Fisher, a Bessemer Venture Partners partner and head of its Tel Aviv office who has served on Fiverr’s board since January 2011 ²⁵, is separately reported via investigative Substack reporting to have presented to an Israeli military/IDF-linked audience on 22 November 2023 on how U.S. tech leaders could help the IDF win the “information war” on social media, appearing on the same program as an IDF spokesperson presenting in uniform, with his presentation reportedly including examples of “criticizing and ridiculing” pro-Palestinian social-media figures ³⁴³⁵. No source reviewed ties this specific presentation to Fisher’s Fiverr board role or to Fiverr as a company, so it is documented here as a principal’s individual conduct rather than a corporate act. Board member Ron Gutler has served since April 2019 and as Lead Independent Director since May 2021, previously chaired NICE Systems Ltd. (May 2002–February 2013), a surveillance/voice-recognition/data-security firm, and served on the board of CyberArk Software Ltd. until February 2026 ³⁶²⁶³⁷. No public evidence identified connecting Gutler personally to settlement organizations, FIDF, or anti-BDS advocacy bodies such as CFI, AIPAC, ADL, or USISTF. No public evidence identified of Fiverr founders or executives holding board seats in CFI, AIPAC, ADL, or USISTF.

End Notes