Itai Ben-Zaken, a former BCG consultant and Wharton MBA, spent months trying to figure out what he could have done differently during the five years he oversaw the company after his first startup collapsed in 2018. Upon scrutinizing the majority of his significant choices, he deduced that although Comprendi, a digital ad recommendation enterprise, presented an intriguing proposition, its gravest error stemmed from attempting to compete in an industry dominated by Google and Facebook.
Ben-Zaken promised himself that he would not make the same error when he began looking at starting his second startup. After considering a market with a large number of rivals, he decided to launch a firm providing property and liability insurance to condominium organizations and landlords. According to Ben-Zaken, the sources, the largest landlord insurance carrier, Travelers, accounted for merely 7% of the market, with the remaining 90% of the competitive landscape being occupied by 100 smaller carriers.
Insurance was nothing new to Ben-Zaken. He oversaw Insurance.com at QuinStreet, a company that operates white-labelled financial services markets, for four years prior to founding Comprendi.
He founded Honeycomb Insurance in 2019, and the business sold its first coverage in 2021 after spending two years developing its AI-driven property “inspection” and computer vision systems. According to Ben-Zaken, Honeycomb’s AI frequently does away with the necessity for pricey on-site inspections by using aerial photos of building roofs.
The company is presently on schedule to sell $130 million in insurance premiums in 2024, a threefold increase from last year, after raising a $15 million Series A in early 2022. One of the first contacts Ben-Zaken made when Honeycomb was preparing to fund its Series B earlier this year was to lone venture financier Oren Zeev, who is well-known for being one of the biggest investors in Navan, Houzz, Next Insurance, and Tipalti. Regarding Honeycomb, Zeev remarked, “I was blown away by what I saw.” He consented to support Honeycomb, but only on the condition that Ben-Zaken promise not to pitch the offer to other investors.
Ben-Zaken accepted Zeev’s proposition without hesitation since, ever since he created Honeycomb, he had dreamed of having the lone venture capitalist as a supporter and member of the board.
Zeev became Honeycomb’s largest stakeholder when he sent the company a $30 million cheque. The Chicago-based business is raising a $36 million Series B on Tuesday, including participation from returning backers Ibex Investors, Phoenix Insurance, and IT-Farm, as well as new investors Arkin Holdings and Launchbay Capital.
Although Zeev is also no stranger to the insurtech industry—he has a sizeable position in Next Insurance and supported Hippo Insurance before to its SPAC IPO in 2021—he acknowledged that he is not typically “a fan” of the field.
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