Insurance software firm Applied Systems has announced its acquisition of Planck, a prominent artificial intelligence (AI) company in the insurance sector.
Planck offers an AI-driven data platform tailored for commercial insurance, collaborating with U.S. insurance companies to streamline the commercial underwriting process for small to medium-sized businesses. This platform enables instant underwriting of policies, significantly enhancing efficiency.
Applied Systems is a leading provider of cloud-based insurance management systems, serving agents and brokers in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The company anticipates that the acquisition will “significantly expand and accelerate the delivery of AI capabilities” across its global product portfolio.
“We believe the time is now to take bold steps to lead the insurance industry in discovering and implementing the benefits AI has to offer,” said Taylor Rhodes, CEO of Applied Systems.
Founded in 2016, Planck operates from New York and Tel-Aviv, employing approximately 80 people. “We started Planck with the belief that access to real-time data to get a full picture of a business is more crucial than ever when identifying the actual risk factors that are core to insurance,” stated Elad Tsur, CEO and co-founder of Planck. “We are excited to build on the success of delivering our industry-leading AI capabilities to carriers by partnering with Applied to extend the power of AI to the agency and broker distribution side of the market.”
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In the past 18 months, Applied Systems has introduced AI-powered features in select Applied and EZLynx products and has experimented with various AI capabilities through its Applied AI Lab, in collaboration with major industry agents and carriers. These initiatives have revealed substantial opportunities to reduce inefficiencies and unlock the value of data.
Applied Systems aims to enhance the speed and quality of critical business processes, including marketing, sales, underwriting, renewals, servicing, and advisory services.
Hellman & Friedman, a global private equity firm, has been Applied’s majority shareholder since 2014, alongside minority shareholders Stone Point Capital, JMI Equity, and capitalG.
Planck has raised over $70 million in funding rounds to date.
