InsurTech Israel to Bring Mission to Des Moines

Kobi Bendelak, founder and CEO of InsurTech Israel, lost his job in 2016 after selling his stake in Reshef, an insurance agency based near Tel Aviv.

Bendelak said that while attending an insurtech meetup, he “found a bunch of entrepreneurs, some with great ideas, talking about how they could or wanted to revolutionize the insurance industry.”

From there, he jumped right into founding InsurTech Israel in January 2017 to develop and promote Israeli insurtech startups. The organization receives investment for startups, builds connections with customers, organizes roadshows for outreach, and runs an annual accelerator program. It also has offices or representatives in the US, UK, and Germany.

The organization is tapping into a growing insurtech ecosystem, according to Bendelak. “Tel Aviv is one of the insurtech capitals of the world. It’s really amazing,” he said. “The ecosystem is constantly evolving—from new entrepreneurs who are looking to solve barriers or problems they’ve identified in the insurance space, or from startups that have already been operating in other industries.”

InsurTech Israel has incubated or supported several insurtech startups that have subsequently raised more funding, including Honeycomba real estate insurance company that raised $36 million in financing, DigitalOwlAI-powered healthcare data analytics firm with $12 million in funding. Other insurtech-backed companies include: PlanckNovidea, Healthee and Cytactic.

In addition to these incubated companies, the InsurTech Israel accelerator program, which first took place in Tel Aviv last year, is hitting the road this fall, coming to Des Moines, Iowa, November 11-14. The event will be held in partnership with BrokerTech Projectsan accelerator run by Des Moines-based insurance brokers.

Bendelak said they expect 12 to 15 startups from regions around the world to participate in the program. “Imagine being in a place where we now have a conference room with 15 startups from all over the world talking about the same topics. It’s amazing,” he said. “I’m impressed by how small the world is and how insurers can connect people. It’s a great initiative. I’m very proud of it because we’re doing good things for insurance and the insurtech world.”