The Axell Launch

We are excited to announce the launch of Axell, an innovation builder for insurance and finance. Almost 2 years ago, I decided to quit my very comfortable corporate position to build my own company. I decided to do what I love to do – explore, connect, build and transform business and companies.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, we accelerate the digital transformation of financial services companies by constantly innovating and co-creating new digital products. Our ecosystem is comprised of startups, financial services institutions, investors, executives, entrepreneurs and game-changers. We aim to remove friction from the customer engagement process, deliver better experiences and prepare companies for disruptive change.

A lot of content can be found on why insurance is going to be disrupted and why financial services need to transform before it is going to be too late.

The latest Capgemini Efma world insurance report elaborates on opportunities for how insurance companies can partner with external technology providers to accelerate their transformation and meet customer demands. If done well, more comprehensive and personalized insurance products can be created.

I have spent the past 20 years in many corporate roles. Always at the intersection between technology, business models and transformation. I spent my professional career working for international companies starting from my first role at Intel in Israel.

It has been a great journey and experience. Transforming the agents’ model at Migdal insurance, winning innovation awards with Generali and working with great talents and technologies around the globe. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to be an entrepreneur within large organizations.

The industry is evolving and I wanted to be at the forefront of innovation.

Tha challenge – Balancing risk management and innovation

The core of financial services companies’ DNA is built on managing risks. It is not about managing opportunities.

For example, if you present 10 great ideas to the board of an insurance company, the focus of the discussion will be on the risks they are exposed to and not the massive opportunities to increase revenue. And this is the very opposite of an innovation mindset.

When you focus on only managing risks, you go short on managing opportunities. As a consequent, financial services companies rather need to adopt a portfolio approach to manage their innovations over time, similar to how VCs manage their portfolios.

From “Egosystem” to  Ecosystem

Collaboration is also not one of the typical strengths one would associate with the financial services industry. Usually, money is not a problem in this industry. So why collaborate if you can buy it? Why partner if you can own it? Why share a part of the value chain with someone else?

Connecting the legacy (tech and culture) of traditional players to a 21st-century digital company became a huge challenge.

This is also where it becomes an opportunity.

The future, successful, financial services companies will be the ones who partner with the right digital-native companies, at the right time to drive their digital transformation forward.

What makes Axell so unique? 

We combine design with technology and data – We believe that if we are able to combine design, technology and data in the early stage of building new services, it will make a crucial difference. This is our core.

We partner vs buy or build – We believe that the most successful financial services companies of the future will be the ones who understand the value of building the right ecosystem of technology partners and engage with them at the right time.

We focus on financial services Our sole focus is on one industry that helps us create significant value to our clients over time from our domain expertise, experience, operational know-how and most of all from our deep understanding of client challenges.

We are at the intersection of incumbents and technology Our clients explore, partner, co-design, build and invest in new products and services and our technology partners get great opportunities to scale and export their capabilities.

We don’t have the ambition to build a huge consulting firm, but a small exclusive platform with highly selected clients who understand the need for change, the importance of open innovation and are ready to lead their transformation.

Why in Israel?

A lot has been written about our Startup Nation. I was born and raised here in Israel. However, I spent the past years working and living outside of Israel. It helped me understand that Israel has contributed to who I am. It helped me understand that Israel is much more than a Startup Nation with great technology and amazing talent. Most of the people I worked with in the past have never been here. The ones who did, are the ones who see the difference.

I am excited about the new journey and would love to connect.

Yours truly – Moshe Tamir, Founder & CEO || Follow us on LinkedIn

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