The Future of Insurance – Kobi Bendelak, CEO, InsurTech Israel

Kobi is the CEO of InsurTech Israel that established by him to promote and lead the Israeli Insurtech ecosystem. The company has four areas of activity, investments, Bizdev, media and Acceleration program. All that activities make InsurTech Israel as the leading and most active company in the Israeli Insurtech. Kobi was the founder and CEO of Reshef Insurance Brokers, part of Migdal / Generali Insurance Group. Kobi has 22 years of experience in the insurance industry and holds a BA in Management and an MA in Law from Bar Ilan University and he is a Colonel (Reserve) in the IDF.

Highlights from the Show

• Kobi started an MGA in Israel that grew to be the largest in the country that he sold to Generali
• After some time off, he saw a need to create a way to strengthen the insurtech ecosystem in the country
• Tel Aviv has almost 200 insurance startups, and InsurTech Israel supports them with four pillars
  • Investment
  • Business Development
  • Exposure
  • Accelerator
• They partner with other organizations, including BrokerTechVentures, AIG, Aon, AF Group, Dell, Milliman, ResourcePro, Xceedance and others
• They work across the entire value chain and space in insurance
• Insurance works on trust, so their core mission is really to help build trust in companies in the ecosystem there
• Tel Aviv has been a hotspot for innovation more broadly, which Kobi attributes to a very social environment, open mindsets of the people to embrace new ideas, and infrastructure from the government and supporting areas like venture capital
• Right now is obviously a very difficult time for anyone in the area, and only adds to the uncertainty and need for great leadership for startups
  • Kobi shared the initial shock after Black Saturday in October
  • After a few days, they realized they cannot stay in shock, and must continue or they will lose their momentum and place in the industry
  • It's a time where the country is clearly in the midst of trauma and the impact that's having on the community is visible
• One reason Kobi believes Israel has so many startups is the way it faces major strife and disaster and comes back stronger, which builds resilience and toughness to press through great challenges
• Today, the main focus for InsurTech Israel is to support their startups with fundraising as they found many of their members were planning to raise soon and need support there given the way the war is impacting fundraising and these startups need to make it through to their next raise

This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk.

Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes.

Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.