Accelerate your InsurTech in Israel 2022

This is a repost of my article on LinkedIn a week ago

I last wrote about InsurTech in Israel almost 5 years ago. A lot has happened since then. Several Israeli InsurTechs; Lemonade, Hippo and At-Bay, have become unicorns, whilst others like Sapiens (SPNS) and Earnix have continued to grow into global leaders and there is a constant flow of new InsurTech companies.

Acceleration all round the insurance eco-system

The Israeli InsurTechs are using top local skills and cutting-edge technology to cover every aspect of insurance. From global systems and distribution verticals to pinpoint solutions. No line of business is being missed; general insurance (P&C), health and life, motor, home, cyber, business insurance and more. Brokers and digital channels, claims, underwriting, automation, no process missed either.
Accelerating InsurTech

Insurtech accelerators are suddenly everywhere, even in a tiny country like Israel, there are plenty of them. The accelerators are collaborations of the local insurers with different kinds of partners. Ayalon (a traditional insurer bought by weSure - an Israeli Insurtech itself) has partnered with InsurTech Israel, Sapiens and others to create The Israeli InsurTech Accelerator. IBM (where I was until recently) has AlphaZone working with Menorah's INTECH, and GDH-TLV is a collaboration between our local IDI and Japanese MSI. PIX is run by Phoenix insurance. Other insurers have decided to invest in funds rather than running their own hub, such as Clal investing in FinTLV a year ago.

Accelerating Remote Capabilities During the Pandemic

The COVID pandemic has changed the way the world operates across all industries and insurance is no exception. The deaths and shutdowns have obviously been devastating, but there have been some positive effects.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a slowdown in operations, however companies have adjusted fast, even insurers, who are traditionally more conservative when it comes to change. If insurers were still thinking about moving to remote and cloud based systems 2 years ago, COVID forced everyone to rethink and accelerate their plans. Insurers allowing remote work, enhanced technology to enable remote operations and working in the cloud. Also the regulators needed to adapt and allow for this change in paradigm.
Travelling and working on premises becoming virtually impossible, InsurTechs and other suppliers have had to adjust, allowing implementation of new technology, migrations to new systems and overall operations to be managed from afar. This making ones physical location, less of an importance, as long as you have access to collaboration tools and can do remote deployment.

Accelerating Investments

In December 2021, Dr. Moshe Bareket, the Supervisor of the Israeli Capital Market, announced that he will allow Israeli insurance companies to invest a significant amount of money in InsurTech companies and become shareholders in those companies. This encouragement gives companies working with insurers a significant boost and makes the Israeli ecosystem even more interesting for starting, expanding to, or investing in InsurTech companies.

Acceleration all round

The technology ecosystem in Israel is booming! Investment in in 2021 was at an all-time high at over $26 billion, 33 additional private companies were coined unicorns as well. According to Start-up Nation Central there are currently a total of 53 Israeli unicorns.

InsurTech touches many other areas of technology. With so much going on, don't miss out on those companies that are not classified as InsurTechs but definitely can be a part of the insurance eco-system, even if the main market is not defined as such. Take for example fleet technology, signature processes, early-warning IoT gadgets, Cyber, medical devices, and anything that improves the insurance process or reduces risk.

Want to Accelerate?

Interesting in finding a solution for insurance? Are you an InsurTech need of guidance, understanding insurance, processes, geographies or how to position the company?

Are you someone wondering if you want to/can get into the insurance space?

Drop me a line, I’m happy to lend my expertise!

contact@gilmour.info

Tel: +975-54-2190545