Deep in the labyrinthine alleyways of Acre’s old town, home to a 700-year-old Crusader fortress, Muhammad Hani couldn’t order a take-out pizza. Delivery drivers struggle to navigate a maze of densely packed ancient buildings, narrow alleyways and winding streets, leaving many of Israel’s Arabs living there cut off from such services.
“The only people who know how to navigate this area are residents like us,” said the 27-year-old.
Even if the driver found the home address, another barrier remained. Many Arab citizens can only pay with cash, and delivery companies such as Wolt, a major Israeli operator, only accept card payments. “Most people here don’t have bank cards,” Hani explained.
Launched in 2019, HART aimed to address some of the barriers that have left communities like Hani on the margins of Israel’s high-tech society. Not everyone in this country, known as the Startup Nation, can benefit from cutting-edge services from the latest applications.
At first, Haat’s idea was simple. It was about combining technology with the convenience of old-fashioned cash. But the technology ultimately found uses far beyond its original goals, helping Israel’s Post Office map its villages and allowing small local restaurants to expand their customer base far beyond their neighborhoods.
Founded by Hassan Abbasi in Israel’s Arab-majority town of Umm al-Fam, Haat currently serves 50 cities, partners with more than 10,000 restaurants and markets, and employs more than 500 delivery workers. Its success has brought the app’s valuation to more than $100 million, said Aida Kadan, the company’s head of public relations and communications.
Mr. Abbasi’s creative strategy with Mr. Hart also helped Israel’s leading business newspaper place him on the Globe’s “40 Under 40,” an annual list of promising young Israelis.
Abbasi came up with the idea for Haat (meaning “to bring” in Arabic) while working at Google in Switzerland. The 36-year-old returned to Umm Al Fahm from Zurich because his wife is pregnant with their second child. One night, he tried to order a pizza, but the delivery guy kept getting lost.
This experience helped Abbasi recognize broader issues and opportunities. He and five others founded Haat, which started in Umm al-Fam and later expanded to neighboring Arab towns. Demand exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic when lockdowns kept people at home and online orders soared.
Mr. Abbasi was also aware of the systemic problems surrounding banking in Israel, particularly in the Arab sector. More than 37% live in poverty, according to a 2024 survey by the Israel National Insurance Institute. According to Mayor Samir Mahamed, many low-income households, especially in Umm Al Fam, do not have the means to make electronic payments, making cash the most convenient payment method.
Hart combines the convenience of shopping and dining through a smartphone application with an old-fashioned cash payment option.
The option has proven useful beyond the Arab community and has become popular in mixed areas like Jaffa, where many people do not have bank cards, Kadan said.
Hart has since expanded its service to include the ability for users to pay their utility and phone bills with cash.
“The cash option was born out of responding to a need in society, and it is now one of Hart’s most important advantages in every sector in which we operate,” she said.
Haat’s efforts to transform previously impassable streets into towns on the map come as Haat focuses on reaching people who are underserved by other delivery apps.
In some Arab neighborhoods in Israel, housing was built in a maze of close quarters, making it difficult to provide delivery services, and streets often lacked official names and houses were not numbered.
“Navigation relies heavily on neighborhood names, family estates and local landmarks, posing major challenges to postal delivery, commercial delivery and emergency services,” said Mr. Mahamed, the mayor of Umm al-Fahm.
Over the past six years, Hart has helped redraw the map of underserved cities. By tracking parcel routes and using machine learning to identify roads, neighborhoods, buildings, and entrances missed by traditional navigation services, the company says its maps now include 30% more roads in the areas it serves than other mapping platforms.
This was especially helpful for residents of Umm Al Faham, a city of more than 57,000 people. The mayor said Hart supported a citywide project undertaken by the local government to name streets and number houses.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Post Office for comment.
Improved access to Arab neighborhoods opens up new markets for restaurants and shops overlooked by the broader community, which Hart said will “democratize visibility.”
Crunchy Chicken began as a single fried chicken restaurant in Baqa al-Gharbiyeh, an Arab town in northern Israel near the border with the occupied West Bank.
The restaurant has since opened two more locations in the Israeli Triangle, a region of Arab towns and villages on the Green Line that demarcates the West Bank and Israel.
Manager Sharif Masarwe said Crunchy Chicken initially relied primarily on word-of-mouth advertising. But Masarwe told CNN that Hart’s online exposure was a huge help, as was the convenience of different payment options.
“The fact that there is a cash option has allowed more people to use the application and order food from our restaurants and other stores. Not everyone prefers to pay using a bank card, so it was very helpful,” he said.
Hart recently expanded into Tel Aviv and acquired Finland’s Walt, a leading player in Israel’s food delivery market. Walt’s motorcycle can be seen all over the seaside town as it zips through the streets and weaves through dense traffic.
Local competitors are now leveraging that strength to establish their own foothold in Tel Aviv. “Heart is local and internal, so we read the needs of local people,” Kadan said. “We try to understand what is missing and fill that gap with technology.”
