Home Finance InsureTech Startup Planck Re Secures $12m for AI Underwriting

InsureTech Startup Planck Re Secures $12m for AI Underwriting

Different fields and industries appear to be benefiting a lot from harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Efforts by Planck Re may see the insurance industry reap the benefits of the groundbreaking technologies.

The startup recently secured $12 million in Series A round of financing in a move intended to make insurance underwriting easier through the use of artificial intelligence.

Arbor Ventures led the Series A round. Other firms such as Eight Roads and Viola FinTech also participated.

EladTsur, Planck Re ’s chief executive officer and co-founder, told TechCrunch that the money raised would be used in expanding the startup’s product line into more categories such as IT, contractors, retail, and manufacturing.

Furthermore, the company would use the funds in growing its North American-based sales team and its research and development team.

Based both in New York and Tel Aviv, Planck Re intendeds to first pour all its focus on its operations in the United States, where its pilot programs with some insurance carriers are already running.

According to Tsur, most of the startup’s customers use it to assist them in underwriting insurance for small to medium-sized enterprises, which include business owner policies. These policies cover workers’ compensation as well as liability and property risks.

Planck Re was founded back in 2016 by David Schapiro, Amir Cohen, and Elad Tsur. The company is convinced that its revolutionary technology is a more accurate and efficient alternative to the lengthy questionnaire insurers ask their customers to fill out.

The startup ’s platform scans the Internet in search of available data such as public records, social media profiles, videos, text, and images in a bid to create profiles of SMBs looking for insurance coverage. Using such data, Planck Re assists carriers in identifying their potential risk.

Before the establishment of Planck Re, both Cohen and Tsur created Bluetail, which is a data mining startup that was purchased in 2012 by Salesforce. Bluetail operated as Salesforce Einstein’s base technology.

On the other hand, Schapiro previously worked as the chief executive officer or Earnix, a financial analytics firm.

Even though there several startups such as Swyfft, Hippo, Cover, Trov and Softbank-backed Lemonade already using algorithms to simplify the choosing and purchasing of insurance policies, AI-based insurance underwriting is still in its early stages.

Flyreel, for instance, recently signed an agreement with Microsoft to expedite its go-to-market plan. The company is known for focusing on the underwriting of property insurance.

Tusr asserted that Planck Re is currently creating more dedicated algorithms aimed at meeting the changing needs of insurance providers.

For instance, now most underwriters are interested in knowing whether customers in photography utilize aerial imaging equipment, In turn, the imaging process abilities possessed by Planck Re can automatically go through images to obtain such information.

Lior Simon, Arbor Venture’s VP and head of Israel, acknowledged the company’s partnership with Planck Re and its dedicated entrepreneurial team.

He also stated that insurance companies are in need of actionable data to evaluate risk as well as attain real-time insights and improve customer understanding.

As such, Planck Re aims at empowering them using a streamlined digital technique.

 

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KC Cheung
KC Cheung has over 18 years experience in the technology industry including media, payments, and software and has a keen interest in artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks and its applications in business. Over the years he has worked with some of the leading technology companies, building and growing dynamic teams in a fast moving international environment.
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