Planck

AI for business insurance

Planck was founded in 2016 by Elad Tsur, Amir Cohen and David Shapiro, according to Bizportal. The company developed a platform for commercial insurers, which need to understand a business's activity before they decide whether to insure it and on what terms. According to the announcement by the acquirer, Applied Systems, the platform was used by insurers in the United States. The company focused on collecting up-to-date information and producing insights for underwriting. The information is meant for assessing a business's risk, not for producing a general insurance document unrelated to what the business actually does.

How information from the web becomes underwriting data

According to the technology page, the system maps the business's digital presence and collects information from sources on the web. The entity matching stage uses machine learning to assign the data to the right business, even when it comes from sources that are not related to one another. Then language processing, computer vision and analysis of unstructured information are combined. The company also describes detecting risk-related elements inside images and videos. Deep learning algorithms connect the findings into insights that are returned to the insurer through a software interface. The company describes ongoing training on business information that has been checked and verified. In images, background data such as the location and time the photo was taken is also examined, which can add context to the assessment of the business's activity.

A name and address instead of a blank questionnaire

In the form-filling product, the starting point is the business's name and address. According to Planck, the data is sent to the system in real time, and it collects information and produces answers to the questions on the application form. The completed form is returned to the insurer's system. The product page stresses that the filled-in data is shown to the customer for approval. This way an agent or business owner can review information that has already been collected instead of entering everything by hand. The process is described as a way to reduce the back-and-forth between the party submitting the application and the underwriter.

What was acquired in July 2024

On 23 July 2024 Applied Systems announced that it had acquired Planck. The wording of the announcement describes a completed acquisition. According to Bizportal, Planck had raised $73 million by then, including from Team8, Viola Fintech and Arbor Ventures. The company's employees were to join the acquirer and set up a development center in Israel. Elad Tsur was appointed to lead AI at the acquiring company. The official announcement does not give a deal price; it describes an expansion of AI capabilities in Applied Systems' insurance products.

From the insurer to the agent

According to the acquisition announcement, Applied Systems sought to extend Planck's technology to insurance agencies and agents as well. The acquirer provides software across the insurance process, and presented possible uses in marketing, sales, underwriting, renewal and service. These are the integration goals published at the time of the acquisition. Planck's website continues to describe the underwriting products, and its copyright is now registered to Applied Systems. The integration keeps the technology in the context of information about a business and a professional process, with data that the customer approves in the form-filling product.