NEW CLIMATETECH-INSURANCE JOINT VENTURE AS AUSTRALIAN-ISRAEL-NEW YORK COOPERATION KICKS OFF BETWEEN IAG FIREMARK VENTURES AND JVP

Rhea-AI Summary

IAG Firemark Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Margalit Startup City are partnering to tackle climate change risk assessment. The collaboration aims to discover and develop cutting-edge technologies and startups to measure and mitigate risks from climate change. Extreme weather events have led to increased property damage and business disruptions, resulting in higher claims payouts for insurance companies. The partnership will encourage collaboration with corporations, startups, and emerging businesses to support climate technological solutions.

Positive

• IAG Firemark Ventures, JVP, and Margalit Startup City are partnering to develop technologies and startups to measure and mitigate risks from climate change.
• The collaboration aims to support and scale climate technological solutions to help insurers achieve their global energy, environmental, and sustainability goals.
• The partnership will encourage collaboration with corporations, startups, and emerging businesses to support climate technological solutions.

Negative

• None.

IAG Firemark Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Margalit Startup City Join Forces to Tackle Climate Change Risk Assessment

NEW YORK, SYDNEY and JERUSALEM, June 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- IAG Firemark Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Australia and New Zealand's largest general insurer IAG, together with Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), and Margalit Startup City (MSC) New York announced today a new ground-breaking ClimateTech Insurance joint-collaboration. The partnership is aimed at discovering, nurturing, and developing emerging cutting-edge technologies and startups to measure and mitigate risks stemming from the impact of climate change.

As the global climate crisis continues to evolve, the need to combine AI predictions and analytics becomes paramount with climate change introducing new risks and uncertainties that directly impact the insurance industry – both for individual consumers and insurance providers. Extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and droughts have become more frequent and severe, leading to increased property damage, crop losses, and business disruptions. Consequently, insurance companies face higher claims payouts and increased financial risks.

IAG Firemark Ventures, JVP and Margalit Startup City NYC will be encouraging collaboration with corporations, startups and emerging businesses to support and scale climate technological solutions to help insurers achieve their global energy, environmental and sustainability goals.

Erel Margalit, Founder and Chairman of JVP and Margalit Startup City, noted, "As extreme weather conditions and climate change are increasingly impacting the livelihood of individuals worldwide, insurance companies are actively searching for new technologies, including AI predictions and analytics, with the aim of providing secure coverage for challenging climate conditions. We are delighted to have IAG Firemark Ventures as our partner, along with MINI and other partners, as we explore new technologies globally in the US, Israel, and Australia. These advancements can bring innovative solutions and frameworks to meet the evolving demands of climate change."

Scott Gunther, General Partner of IAG Firemark Ventures: said "As an insurer, we see first-hand the impact climate change is having on our customers, communities, business and our industry. For this reason, IAG Firemark Ventures has ClimateTech as a key startup investment focus area for the future and why we have entered into this important partnership. We look forward to working with the International ClimateTech Centre to help ClimateTech startups' scale to help deliver on our climate and environmental goals."

The International ClimateTech Center takes an entirely new approach to ClimateTech, whereby mainstream technologies join forces with the worlds of Insur-tech, Fintech, cyber, Foodtech and AgriTech, to tackle the climate crisis in the most innovative manner possible. The Center was launched in partnership with Mini and Urban-X in September 2022, and works to help scale

sustainable, technological solutions to climate change in urban landscapes, with an accelerator program that has so far attracted more than 500 startups from the US, Europe, and Israel.

Companies already operating out of the Center include tech unicorn Earnix, a JVP portfolio company which is a leading provider of intelligence operations for insurance and banking, and will play a crucial role in this collaboration; Greeneye, an AI-driven startup revolutionizing pest control in agriculture; and Dryad, which provides early forest fire detection, as well as health and growth monitoring solutions for public and private forests.

The collaboration between IAG Firemark Ventures, JVP, and Margalit Startup City will officially commence in June 2023. By combining resources, investment capabilities, industry expertise and a global market share, this collaboration aims to nurture and propel emerging technologies that have the potential to reshape the insurance industry's approach to risk assessment.

About Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP)

Founded in 1993 by Dr. Erel Margalit, JVP is an internationally renowned VC fund. It is among the pioneering firms of the Israeli VC industry and has raised over $1.7bn. Over the years, JVP has built over 160 companies and has been listed numerous times by Preqin, as one of the top six consistently performing VC firms worldwide with portfolio companies that drive global markets today. JVP's winning strategy combines company creation with early and late-stage investment. JVP has been instrumental in building some of the world's largest companies to emerge, orchestrated dozens of industry acquisitions to leading international companies and facilitated 12 IPOs on NASDAQ, including CyberArk Software (NASDAQ: CYBR, $4.7 billion mkt. cap.), QLIK Technologies (NASDAQ: QLIK, then $4 billion mkt. cap.) as well as many large industry sales.  JVP creates the majority of its own deal flow from seed by seeking ground-breaking new innovations. Renowned for its hands-on approach in supporting and mentoring its companies, JVP welcomes global strategic and investment partners through all phases of the maturity cycle, with a view to creating disruptive technologies and solutions. Over the past decade, JVP has spearheaded the creation of international Centers of Excellence, including the AI and Media Center in Jerusalem, the Cyber Center in Beer Sheva, the FoodTech Center in the Galilee, the Digital Health Center in Haifa, the Fintech Center in Tel Aviv and the International Cyber and Climate-tech Center in NYC. Visit the JVP Website https://www.jvpvc.com.

About IAG

IAG is the parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia and New Zealand. IAG's main businesses underwrite over $13 billion of insurance premium per annum under many leading brands, including: NRMA Insurance, RACV (under a distribution agreement with RACV), CGU, SGIO, SGIC and WFI (Australia); and NZI, State, AMI and Lumley (New Zealand).  For further information, please visit www.iag.com.au 

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SOURCE JVP

FAQ

What is the aim of the partnership between IAG Firemark Ventures, JVP, and Margalit Startup City?

The aim of the partnership is to discover and develop cutting-edge technologies and startups to measure and mitigate risks from climate change.

What are the potential impacts of climate change on the insurance industry?

Extreme weather events have led to increased property damage and business disruptions, resulting in higher claims payouts for insurance companies.

Who will the partnership encourage collaboration with?

The partnership will encourage collaboration with corporations, startups, and emerging businesses to support climate technological solutions.