Ari Katz: Shaping BEA Ventures

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Ari Katz, Managing Partner at BEA Ventures and Co-Founder of bolt, now known as bolttech, which metamorphosed into the powerhouse bolttech.

On this episode, they discuss strategic vision and market positioning, startup acceleration and value creation, data and technology, future outlook and collaborations, and much more.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The unique angles we provide include identifying the companies we want to look at and validating the market acceptance of their ideas/solutions. We have hundreds of customers/prospects/partners that we can tap into to see if it’s of interest to them and help take it to the next step.  
• Areas we’ve seen with a lot of action or potential include data creation and insights, and how we can embed them into our offerings. Another is personal cyber. We are very big in device protection and distribution across 35 countries around the globe. There are similarities between device and cyber protection, and awareness of cyber is growing. 
• There are cases where people don’t want to buy data because they’ve been offered data so many times, they paid for it, but didn’t see any returns for 1000s of reasons. There may be cases where you can offer it as a profit share rather than a service, or change what you offer, even though the product remains the same. 
• Insurance is a data business and has been gathering/analysing/learning from data forever. A successful company is one that leverages its data and does proper underwriting, pricing, etc. What we are seeing are all kinds of data companies of all sizes that are not necessarily adapting to new changes and capabilities. We bring all data capabilities into one place, enabling carriers on our platform to leverage the ones they need or want.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Typically, young companies need more fundraising (Seed A) and more handholding to improve. This is where our thought of creating an external VC came into play.’
‘It’s rare to see a company that hits the right product market fit from the start.’
‘We want to help companies to avoid making the same mistakes we did when we were starting out.’
In Asia, insurance is part of larger ecosystems, whereas in Europe and the US, it is not. Big brands have distribution and sell insurance as part of it. I think this will be an area of growth in 2024 in Europe and the US.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ari Katz is a seasoned entrepreneur with 30 years of experience founding and managing software companies with several successful exits. His track record includes over 20 years of creating pioneering insurance solutions that have revolutionized the insurance landscape, designed to meet consumer demands whilst offering a competitive advantage and sustainable commercial growth.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures