Itai Ben-Zaken
Personal: Married with two children, lives in New York.
Professional: Founder and CEO of Honeycomb, a company providing digital insurance for properties in the US.
Childhood and family: "I grew up in Rishon LeZion. My father worked in marketing at Bank Leumi, and my mother was a clinical psychologist. At the age of 14, we moved to Paris because of my father's job. It was a formative experience; I was exposed to the wider world and learned a great deal very quickly. We returned to Israel when I was 16. I was a good student in school, but academic achievements weren’t my main focus. I was more interested in girls and spent most of my time with my rock band."
Military service: "I served as an intelligence officer in the Military Intelligence Research Department. I was exposed to hidden worlds that most people don’t see, but I didn’t envision a career in the military. I wanted to transition to civilian life and work on things unrelated to war."
Travel and the accident: "During my post-army trip, I was involved in a serious bus accident in Bolivia. The bus, which had left La Paz, overturned and caught fire. Thirty-seven passengers died. I suffered severe burns and nearly suffocated. My recovery took six months. Afterwards, I felt a strong need to reinvent myself."
Returning abroad: "I earned a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Hebrew University and then worked as an engineer at Intel. After two years, I left to pursue an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. I stayed in the US as a strategic consultant at BCG, where I learned much about business management. However, after two years, I realized that consulting wasn’t for me-I’m more of an entrepreneur."
Management experience: "My next step was with QuinStreet, a digital marketing company that had acquired the site insure.com. They asked me to manage it, which is how I was introduced to the insurance world. The business quickly grew from three employees to 50, and I stayed there for four years."
First startup: "In 2013, after 12 years in Pennsylvania and San Francisco, my wife and I returned to Israel. I co-founded the startup Comprendi with two partners. The company enabled advertisers to target customers based on text analysis. Unfortunately, the market was already highly centralized, dominated by Google and Meta. After four and a half years of struggle, I realized this wasn’t the right market for me. I learned from the experience that in my next venture, I would need to be more precise in selecting the market, the team, and the role of technology in solving the problem. Closing Comprendi was incredibly difficult, but it was one of the most important decisions of my life."
Transition to insurance: "After closing the company, I took on a few consulting projects in Israeli venture capital, but soon leaned toward the insurance sector-it felt like the next big thing for me. I wanted a complex market with numerous players without excessive dominance. I also preferred to compete against established companies that were good at insurance but less adept with technology. A friend suggested exploring the US shared property insurance market."
Honeycomb: "I founded Honeycomb in early 2019 with my partner and the company’s Israel operations lead, Nimrod Shadot, who is incredibly smart. The company offers digital insurance for buildings, using technology to streamline and reduce costs. We automate the underwriting process with data from policyholders, AI, and computerized vision."
The numbers: "We employ around 135 people, with about 75 in the US (headquarters and sales) and 60 in Israel (product development, software engineering, AI, and algorithms). To date, we’ve raised approximately $55 million from investors, including The Phoenix, Ibex, SiriusPoint, and Oren Zeev. We operate in 18 USA states, covering over 60% of the population, and insure more than 20,000 buildings worth $35-40 billion."
The US market: "About 30% of Americans live in multi-family properties. Many traditional insurance companies have suffered losses due to risky decisions and events like hurricanes. This has led them to abandon this market segment or resort to expensive manual underwriting."
Algorithm vs. human: "Honeycomb’s technology brings algorithms into this field. For example, pixel-by-pixel analysis of the condition of a roof doesn’t necessarily require a human. Our underwriters train the algorithms to identify well-maintained buildings and flag those needing further inspection. About 70-80% of our decisions are technology-driven, but we always strive for balance and avoid going too far."
What we avoid: "We don’t operate in regions with high hurricane risks or significant wildfire threats, as we lack a competitive edge in those areas. However, unlike many insurers who have withdrawn from California due to only 15-20% of properties being insurable, we see this as an opportunity. Our technology is specifically designed to identify and evaluate these insurable buildings effectively."
Looking ahead: "I aim to make Honeycomb the leading real estate insurance company in the US, eventually leading to an IPO."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 21, 2025.
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