Applied Systems acquires insurtech startup Planck in $300 million deal

Applied Systems announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Israeli startup Planck, which develops artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for the insurance industry. The companies did not disclose the value of the deal, but is estimated by Calcalist at around $300 million.

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Planck has raised $73 million from a series of leading venture capital funds, including Team8, 3L Capital, Greenfield Partners, Viola Fintech, Arbor Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, and Eight Roads. The Israeli company employs 65 people who will form the base for the insurance software giant’s AI Development Center in Israel after becoming Applied Systems' first acquisition in the country.

Planck founders.

Planck offers an AI-based platform for collecting public business data, serving dozens of clients engaged in commercial insurance worldwide. Planck's product provides its clients with data-driven insights that help them assess risk levels, promote underwriting processes, and increase premiums while reducing expenses. Insurance companies and agencies use Planck’s platform for underwriting, contract renewals, instant quotes, and building more accurate actuarial models.

Applied Systems, which employs around 2,700 people across the world, is privately held by equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

Applied Systems is the world's largest provider of cloud-based insurance software, including management systems for insurance agencies and brokers. The company has thousands of customers across the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Ireland, holding a significant share of the global market. In the past year and a half, the company has significantly deepened its focus on AI solutions, aiming to increase efficiency and accelerate the usage of data in the insurance industry. This acquisition will enable it to further expand opportunities to leverage AI's value to create smart automation throughout the insurance lifecycle.

Planck was founded in 2016 by Elad Tsur (CEO), Amir Cohen (CTO), and David Schapiro (Co-founder), who have extensive experience in insurtech and AI. Before founding Planck, Tsur established BlueTail, which was acquired by Salesforce, forming a significant foundation for Salesforce’s initial operations in Israel. Together with Cohen, Tsur managed the architecture of Salesforce's AI platform, rebranded as Salesforce Einstein. Shapiro is a well-known figure in the insurance industry, having served for a decade as CEO of Earnix, an analytical insurtech startup, turning it into one of the leading players in the field.

“Planck was established less than a decade ago, and since then we have managed to create a business advantage for a wide range of commercial insurance clients worldwide,” said Tsur. “Our AI-based product offers real-time business data access, providing a complete and essential view of businesses for insurance companies. The product identifies business risk factors, enabling insurers to tailor policy terms to the insured while achieving financial efficiency and reducing the underwriting loss ratio. Applied Systems’ trust in Planck’s product is a testament to the high value our platform has brought to our leading industry clients. 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. Another significant achievement is leading Applied Systems to enter the local market and grow here significantly, contributing to the Israeli ecosystem. We are excited to embark on a new journey in Planck’s path as part of Applied Systems.”

Taylor Rhodes, CEO of Applied Systems, said: “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. 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. With our unique set of insurance technology assets that span both the agency and carrier sides of the market, our investment in Planck will deliver a significant opportunity to create AI-driven value throughout the next generation of the digital roundtrip of insurance in ways that will help our clients know more, do more of what differentiates them the most, and win more often.”