Kobi Bendelak: From retiring twice to building InsurTech Israel

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VdL interviews Kobi Bendelak, a 22-year veteran in insurance. Kobi is the CEO of InsurTech Israel, which he established to promote and lead innovation within the Israeli Insurtech ecosystem. Sabine has known Kobi for over 6 years. He mentored the startups in her European Accelerator and has always been the kindest individual for the startups and her team members to talk to for advice and mentorship. KEY TAKEAWAYS InsurTech Israel has four baseline activities: Investment – We’ve already invested in 10 startups, all of them are Israeli InsurTechs, Consulting – we assist the startups to grow, Media and Events – we hold events and bring big delegation of startups to engage with corporations – Tel Aviv is one of the key capitals for InsurTech startups in the world. Still, there was no accelerator programme in Israel, so we started one with great mentors from all over the world who helped startups learn, grow, and scale.  Building an ecosystem is very hard, but having a success story makes it easier. We have four unicorns that assist us in building and growing the ecosystem and laying the foundation for the InsurTech industry here in Israel. For a good ecosystem, though, you have to have a lot of early-stage startups, not unicorns! It’s hard to build that because you have to find the entrepreneurs, and they need to find you. Israel is very good with engagement and connections. We have a culture of entrepreneurship here. The insurance world is very orthodox; it’s a long journey for startups to form partnerships with incumbent players. Both B2B startups and investors need to be patient because there is no great success in the beginning, unlike B2C, where you can succeed faster. Soon, it will be easier, though, because the entire industry will be digitised. The insurance industry is a very logical industry: yes/no, cover/no cover, something happened/nothing happened, which makes it a great playground for AI. The Israeli army has seen many successes with AI, so the entrepreneurs who are coming up are young and well-experienced. They start looking for ‘ideas’ and for ways to use them to solve real market problems. Israelis are the best at solving problems because we live in a very tough neighbourhood. InsurTech is not just technology. Indeed, it is first about solving problems, evaluating options, and then implementing technology to make it happen. Entrepreneurs with strong AI skills bring that knowledge to the InsurTech industry through better underwriting for planes, fraud detection, and healthcare, to name a few areas. BEST MOMENTS ‘I retired at 45 years old, and after a few months, it started to get boring, so I looked around for opportunities, and the InsurTech space became very interesting to me.’  ‘Coming into work every day with passion is key.’ ‘You need to have mileage and a little money to succeed.’ ‘Every InsurTech startup must have insurance domain expertise in the team if they want to get into insurance because it’s a very complex industry that requires subject matter expertise.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Kobi Bendelak is the CEO of InsurTech Israel that he established to promote and lead the Israeli Insurtech ecosystem. The company has four areas of activity: investments, consulting, media, and acceleration programmes. All those activities make InsurTech Israel the leading and most active accelerator program in the Israeli InsurTech sector.  Previously, Kobi was the founder and CEO of Reshef Insurance Brokers, part of Migdal/ Generali Insurance Group. He has 22 years of experience in the insurance industry and holds a BA in Management and an MA in Law from Bar Ilan University. He was also a Colonel (Reserve) in the IDF. 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]