Solution Nation 
Gilbert Ohana
FinTLV Ventures
Listeners will learn a great deal about Israeli innovation in the insurance sector. Among the issues discussed are capital requirements, regulatory regimes, the application of AI, protecting proprietary innovations and new lines such as homeowners association insurance and cyberinsurance.
Also discussed is the impact of Israeli military intelligence units on the Israeli entrepreneurial ecosystem. Light is shed on the early identification of the most promising candidates, mission critical challenges pursued in elite intelligence units, and the transfer of critical technologies for commercial use.
Listen to Gilbert Ohana discuss some of Israel’s most promising insuretech companies. Among the companies mentioned are Hippo, Lemonade, Next Insurance and insurance.io.
Gilbert Ohana – Co-Founder and Managing Partner at FinTLV Ventures
A senior executive with 15 years of track-record executive-level experience and more than 26 years of technology experience overall, delivering innovative, high risk and complex initiatives around IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, with a focus on Digital Transformation initiatives, to achieve business goals and competitive advantages.
Combines business understanding and an entrepreneurial spirit, along with broad technology orientation, strong leadership, and management skills, motivating technology teams, peers, partners, and senior management levels.
Consultant at the Prime Minister’s Cyber Bureau and the Israeli Government’s Cyber Authority.
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SHOW NOTES:
00:00:59 – We are interested in all companies relevant to Insuretech and that have technology and service
Fin TLV Ventures is a global venture capital fund. We are focused around insurance technologies. And as a global fund, we invest globally, of course. And we invested already in Israel, Europe and the US in companies like Kippo Insurance, Corpus Insurance. We Fox.
So as a fund, we are doing all stages of investments, although maybe now more focused on late-stage companies. But we also invested in early-stage companies.
And we are interested in all companies relevant to insuretech and that have technology and service that can bring value and disruption to this market.
00:09:48 – The insurance industry has had a reputation of being very conservative and not really adapting to change very well.
As a fund, we’re interested in all technologies that can bring value to the value chain of insurance.
So it could be technology providers that can assess the risk better or handle the claim better. And we are, of course, interested in companies that bill themselves as an insurance company, as a full-stack company.
And of course, different companies in that value chain have different needs in capacity. That’s why we are also working with reinsurance companies in our network that can provide the capacity for these new-age insurance companies.
Okay. So the insurance industry has had a reputation of being very conservative and not really adapting to change very well. Is that changing because more technology is going into the insurance industry?
And do the insurers have no choice but to adapt, otherwise they’ll be left behind? Or is it still very conservative and a long sale cycle?
00:28:23 – If we can automate those processes of claims management using AI, using other kinds of technologies, that is also a great value to insurance.
You need to collect a lot of data, run a lot of AI models to provide a very accurate risk modeling. And anyone who can do risk modeling better is in a great position to be a better insurance company in terms of the profits. So that would be one aspect that could be around image processing.
Also, claims management, a lot of these elements can use now this deep technology to increase the efficiency and accuracy of their operation. Claims management is, like I said, a great part of that. If we can automate those processes of claims management using AI, using other kinds of technologies, that is also a great value to insurance.
Another aspect I would say that certain expertise also that Israelis has the Israeli ecosystem can now find its way to insurance market or other markets.
00:34:47 – Vertical companies get acquired all the time, like cyber companies and data analytics, vertical data analytic companies and other AI companies
A lot of companies around data analytics that are quite critical for the insurance sector. So specifically around insuredek not recall any recent acquisitions because the Israeli insured, although developing very fast, is still quite in its early stages.
But vertical companies get acquired all the time, like cyber companies and data analytics, vertical data analytic companies and other AI companies are getting acquired all the time by the big technology companies like Microsoft and Amazon and Google, of course, and others.
So the acquisitions dynamics, Israel is quite vivid.
Okay, so you mentioned cyber insurance. I would imagine that covers when a company experiences breaches and viruses and that type of thing is cyber insurance, something that the large Israeli companies like Hippo Lemonade.
00:40:16 – There are policies that if you are using this kind of data protection and data security elements of these certified companies.
To the companies that implement cybersecurity software. They don’t have to be Israeli companies, but just for example, Sentinel One or Checkpoint or American or European companies to do similar things.
Do they offer any kind of insurance policies or warranties on their work, or would that be an embarrassment for them to say you need insurance after you just spend $5 million on this implementation?
Yeah, it’s a good question. I think that most of them don’t. I think I’m not sure about the details, but most of them, the cyber insurance technology providers will not offer insurance or warranty, but they do have partnerships with insurance companies that if you use their technologies, you can get a discount or other kind of services bundled into the policy.
So that is happening in the market. And there are policies that if you are using this kind of data protection and data security elements of these certified companies and you can prove that you also stand to the requirements of these companies, you get a discount and maybe other services. So that is coming from the other way.
00:48:46 – You need to be an expert or to have an expert that can differentiate very clearly the products from one another.
Many companies are trying to get a bite of this space. Many companies have certain functionalities that are similar to other companies. It’s difficult to differentiate.
You need to be an expert or to have an expert that can differentiate very clearly the products from one another. And it’s not always as I said, it’s not always on the functionality because many products can be successful just by other functionalities, like the management, the ease of use and deployment. And you need to look at the overall functionalities the products have.
Yeah. And you never know where the next attack is coming from. One software could be very good up until now, but you never know the next one. So, yeah, you made a good point. You have to rely on experts or sometimes organizations like Gartner do surveys and rank different products. So that’s good.
OTHER RESOURCES:
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3) Solution Nation – The Book: Learn how the world’s most disadvantaged and destitute people stand to benefit from Israeli ingenuity.