Andrei Craciunescu: Redesigning Insurance for the AI-Powered Startup Era

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Andrei Craciunescu, founder and CEO of RiskCube, about why the next generation of insurance will be built like software: adaptive, transparent, and embedded into every business platform. They also discuss how AI and data are transforming the broker's role from middleman to intelligent orchestrator, and what the insurance experience of 2030 could look like when protection becomes invisible and trust becomes the new currency. KEY TAKEAWAYS What companies want from the insurance market is fast underwriting, not to talk with humans so much anymore, especially startups; they want a quote in minutes, not months. This is how we got into the segment where we offer business insurance for startups – mainly venture-backed startups. Some providers already offer what we are doing, but there is no comparison. Every founder needs to go to each insurance company separately and ask for a quote, which often varies a lot – sometimes by 40%. They spend a lot of time investigating these quotes, which is expensive and hard to understand. RiskCube is an AI insurance agency for startups where founders can buy and manage insurance online. We looked at what an agency traditionally does: it has different processes in place, such as insurance applications, renewals, cancellations, and claims. We tried to map out all these processes to see which can be done by AI agents. AI cannot solve the whole insurance value chain, but we see a huge adoption in the claims and applications processes. Generally, most founders don’t really care which insurance company they’re with; they care that they have somebody who really understands them as a customer. We want startups to come to us because they trust the system, which provides a fast experience that works for them. It’s not very complicated, what we do for them at the beginning, we provide a smooth process where we can say they have high, medium or low risk then evaluate different quotes for them. BEST MOMENTS  ‘Everybody’s pushing on the AI front, but the insurance market is also evaluating if it’s really necessary; it’s not all in, which is impressive.’  ‘We build the firm first and then embed the technology inside the firm. This will make us defensible in the future because we will own the data in our agency and use it to train our own model.’ ‘People are using a lot of AI nowadays, but nobody really understands where the data is going or hosted.’ ‘Insurance companies tend to adapt AI for themselves, not for the whole market. We want to bring them all together in one channel.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Andrei Craciunescu is redefining risk management with RiskCube, an AI-powered platform revolutionising insurance by streamlining risk assessments, accelerating quote processes, and providing real-time insights to help businesses secure coverage faster and smarter. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]