Israeli AI-based startup Geox enters agreement with major Japanese insurer
The surge in natural disasters has led to record-breaking insurance company payments
Major Japanese insurance company Sompo will install has signed an agreement with GeoX, an Israeli startup which developed AI- based technology for analyzing aerial images of buildings. The collaboration will help Sompo improve the accuracy in the risk assessment and underwriting processes.
According to a recent UN report, the number of natural disasters – such as extreme heatwaves and flooding, has surged fivefold over the past 50 years, killing two million people and producing worldwide economic costs of $3.64 trillion. As a result, insurance companies paid nearly $97 billion in 2020 alone, 40% above the average over the past century.
GeoX’s technology is expected to contribute to the property insurance sector because it produces a great deal of information, 3D and rich with relevant data of private and commercial buildings, such as the size of the building’s roof, what type of roof it is, its condition, slope and more.
Sompo is interested in making the underwriting process more efficient for damage to property caused by natural disasters, which are mostly result of climate change, and have become more frequent in the past decade – including in Japan. The new tech will allow the insurer to automatically offer property owners a unique premium that reflects the appropriate degree of risk.
“Conducting risk assessment for buildings will allow Sompo to reflect in a fair way the level of risk for those insured,” said GeoX co-founder and CEO, Izik Lavy. “Our technology saves Sompo the need to send surveys to each house during the underwriting process and provides an accurate price assessment automatically to customers.”
GeoX was founded in 2018 by Lavy, Eli Lavy (CTO), and Guy Attar (CBDO). The company’s investors include major investment company ICM and the Sure-Tech R&D Partnership.
In 2018, Sompo founded an innovation center in Tel Aviv, which has since launched several commercial collaborations with Israeli tech companies and venture capital investments in the fields of transport, fintech, agritech, cybersecurity, and digital health.