Applied Systems buys Israeli AI insurtech startup to open a local R&D center
As part of the deal, the first in Israel for the US cloud-based insurance software provider, an AI development center will be created with all of Planck’s 65 employees
Sharon Wrobel is a tech reporter for The Times of Israel
United States insurance software provider Applied Systems has struck a deal to snap up Israeli tech startup Planck, a developer of an artificial intelligence-based insurance data platform, to make a foray into the country and open an R&D center.
Financial details about the transaction were not disclosed. To date, Planck has raised $73 million from a series of venture capital funds, including Team8, 3L Capital, Greenfield Partners, Viola Fintech, Arbor Ventures, and Vintage Investment Partners. In the latest funding round in 2022, the startup was valued at $250 million.
Founded in 2016 in Tel Aviv by Elad Tsur, CEO; Amir Cohen, CTO; and David Shapiro, Planck’s AI platform allows insurers to automatically underwrite commercial businesses by drawing on a range of data sources including public records, online images, videos, and reviews and applying machine learning to generate risk-related insights.
The deal marks Applied Systems’ first investment in the Israeli market at a time when the country is almost 10 months into a war with the Hamas terror group and many tech workers and startup founders are still called up for reserve duty to join the fighting. Despite the wartime challenges, the US cloud-based software provider for the insurance market said that following the transaction, it will open a local development center, which will absorb all of Planck’s 65 employees.
The R&D center will be tasked with further developing AI products tapping the Israeli startup’s technology, while building AI-based solutions for Applied Systems’ products. Planck’s founders will join the management team, with Tsur serving as chief AI officer of Applied Systems, leading the AI domain across the software provider’s products.
“We believe the time is now to take bold steps to lead the insurance industry in discovering and implementing the benefits AI has to offer,” said Applied Systems CEO Taylor Rhodes. “By acquiring Planck, we will be investing behind a world-class team of AI and Data Science experts to accelerate the application of leading AI capabilities to insurance workflows.”
Planck has already been working with a number of insurance companies in the US such as Attune (AIG), Republic Indemnity (Great American Insurance Group) and Chubb.
“In this partnership, we are expanding the power of AI alongside the breadth of our distribution to agencies and brokers in the insurance market, in addition to the underwriters within the insurance companies themselves,” said Planck’s Tsur. “Another significant achievement is leading Applied Systems to enter the local market and grow here significantly, contributing to the Israeli ecosystem.”
Commenting on the deal Sarit Firon, Managing Partner at Team8 said that Planck’s AI-based technology “allows companies in the insurance industry to smartly use deep, real-time data to improve their business model… by directly impacting these organizations’ bottom line.”
“We believe that the connection with a global company like Applied Systems will… make a significant contribution to the Israeli ecosystem,” said Firon. “We are particularly proud that a company of such scale is entering Israel at this time, thanks to Planck’s technological achievements.”
