Ruby Capital

Bringing Capital to Israel’s Housing Development

About Ruby Capital

At Ruby Capital, we connect two worlds. On one side are Israel’s residential developers and sponsors, who move quickly and need decisions to match. On the other are the banks and financial institutions that fund us, with their requirements for discipline, structure, and reporting. Since 2015 we have been working with both and answering to both. From the start we set out to build long-standing relationships, and they have held: Developer clients come back with their next project, and our funding partners come back with more capital.

Three Founders. One Vision

Ruby Capital was founded in 2015 by three partners who built their careers outside Israel. Ilan Rubinstein, the firm’s chairman, came from Canada, where his family were founding partners in H&R Developments and its REIT on the Toronto Stock Exchange. He himself brought over 20 years of real estate experience across North America and Israel. Andrew Mestel came with a background in U.S. and Israeli commodities trading, finance, and marketing, and Gerson Schapiro, also from the U.S., joined after decades of building and leading international companies.

All three came to Israel's banking system as outsiders. What they brought was their own capital, underwriting standards established in competitive global markets, and a willingness to challenge conventional deal structures.

As Gerson Schapiro once put it: "We are part of the Israeli start-up nation, it's just that we have traveled in the opposite direction, bringing know-how and capital from overseas to Israel."

A decade on, that remains the core identity of the firm: North American institutional standards combined with project-tested Israeli market expertise. That expertise comes with commitment: the firm still puts its own capital into the deals it brings to investors.

The firm’s leadership team has a balance of its own, drawn from both sides of the industry. Omer Alpern, the firm's first employee and now a partner, joined from the developer side as the former CFO of an urban renewal company. Yaakov Nitzan, now a partner and CEO of Ruby Capital, came from the institutional sector, where he established and led real estate credit at Harel Insurance, which today is one of the institutions that fund us. More than 60 professionals now work at Ruby Capital.

The Founders

Our Management Team »

  • Ilan Rubinstein

    Chairman and Founding Partner
    Over the past 20 years, Ilan has co-founded and served as a partner at several real estate finance, investment, and development firms in the United States and Israel. Ilan is a partner and co-founder of Ruby Ventures, an international investment firm. He has been a real estate developer, investor and financier, active in both North America and Israel, for over 25 years. Ilan received his BA in Philosophy and History from Yeshiva University. He received his MS degree in Real Estate Investment and Development from New York University (NYU).

  • Gerson Schapiro

    Founding Partner
    With over 35 years as an entrepreneur and business leader, Gerson has built, grown, and led several successful companies across a range of industries. Before founding Ruby Capital, he was a partner in a global metals trading company with international operations and held senior roles at other ventures, consistently driving their growth and commercial success.

  • Andrew Mestel

    Founding Partner
    Andrew has many years of experience in the trade, financing and marketing of commodities and raw materials in the global market. He also has vast experience in initiating and founding businesses and leading them to growth and commercial success. Born in New York, Andrew holds a BA in Economics with honors from the State University of New York, as well as an MBA with honors from New York University (NYU).
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    Corporate Responsibility

    Explore Our Impact >

    The values that guide our business-partnership, commitment, and consistency-guide our community work too, because for us business and social responsibility go hand in hand.
    - Panim LaKehila (Facing the Community)
    Panim LaKehila invites the developers and sponsors who work with us to give to a vetted network of nonprofit organizations. At Ruby Capital, we then match their donations, while our employees volunteer on the ground.
    - Stand with Israel
    Launched after the events of October 7, our Stand with Israel initiative supports the communities and organizations hit hardest by the war.
    - 100+ Initiatives Supported Nationwide
    Together Panim LaKehila and Stand with Israel support more than 100 organizations and social initiatives across Israel, ranging from rehabilitation for wounded soldiers and food rescue to elderly care and youth education.

    How We Work

    • Credit and Equity

      Within Ruby Capital, Ruby Finance and Ruby Equity are run as separate businesses, each making its own decisions, and generally working on separate projects. Sometimes one project needs both: equity at an early stage and construction financing later. When that happens, each transaction is underwritten, structured, and priced on its own merits, at market terms.

    • Agility and Diligence

      Complex transactions often hold the greatest promise, but they rarely fit standard lending criteria. We are built to underwrite these transactions without relaxing our credit standards.

    • Disciplined Decisions

      A transaction typically passes two professional committees before it is approved. Committee members are senior figures from Israel's banking, credit, and capital markets.

    • True Partnership

      We work with developers across projects and with our funding partners across market cycles. These relationships are built for the long term.

    • Stability with Flexibility

      Our own equity base and long-standing institutional partnerships give us room to be creative across market cycles.

    • Transparency and Accountability

      Trust is at the core of every relationship we build, with developers and with those who fund us. We keep both informed, and we answer for the decisions we make.

    Financial Partners >