Vesttoo CEO Yaniv Bertele — LinkedIn
New information has surfaced about allegations of fraud made against Vesttoo, an Israeli insurtech startup and a unicorn.
According to a report in Calcalist, Vesttoo investors allegedly provided fake letters of credit (LOCs) to insurers for reinsurance transactions on the Vesttoo platform are believed to total a sum of around $4 billion. Most of these letters reportedly came from what was described as a leading Chinese bank, which appears to have been unaware of the situation.
A number of senior Vesttoo staff have reportedly recently left the company amid the fraud allegations. These include, CFO Gaurav Wadhwa, CCO Julia Henderson, Interim Chief Legal Officer Lauren Smith and Deputy Chief Legal Officer Daniel Goldfried.
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Vesttoo declined to comment on the report because, said the company, it does not comment on matters that are still under investigation.
But when the allegations were first raised, the company issued a statement saying, “The Vesttoo team discovered inconsistencies between an investor and a cedent (the person who holds the insurance policy) in transactions that Vesttoo modeled the risk for. We take the integrity of our business very seriously and are conducting a comprehensive third party audit to ensure our due diligence processes continue to be robust.”
“A few members of the leadership team have decided not to wait for the results of the audit and have decided to leave, and we respect their decision,” added Vesttoo.
Vesttoo first hit the coveted unicorn status in October of 2022 when the firm raised $80 Million in a Series C financing round that left it with a $1.1 billion valuation. And it was just this past May that the firm hit a valuation of as much as $2 billion.
Founded in 2018 by CEO Yaniv Bertele, CPO Alon Lifshitz, and CTO Ben Zickel,, Vesttoo specializes in data-driven risk management solutions for the P&C and longevity markets, using “cutting-edge technologies to transfer General Insurance, Lapse, and Longevity risk to the capital markets.” Vesttoo declares that it provides insurers and pension funds with low-cost, strategic risk transfer to the capital markets, while investors benefit from correlated, high-yield investments with remote loss possibilities.
As a one-stop-shop provider, Vesttoo says that its technological platform takes care of every aspect of the deal. From accurate AI-based risk modeling to structuring, pricing and performance monitoring – with no upfront fees or frictional costs.
A number of senior Vesttoo staff have reportedly recently left the company.
investors allegedly provided fake letters of credit (LOCs) to insurers for reinsurance transactions on the Vesttoo platform are believed to total a sum of around $4 billion. Most of these letters reportedly came from what was described as a leading Chinese bank, which appears to have been unaware of the situation.
Vesttoo declined to comment on the report because, said the company, it does not comment on matters that are still under investigation.
But when the allegations were first raised, the company issued a statement saying, “The Vesttoo team discovered inconsistencies between an investor and a cedent (the person who holds the insurance policy) in transactions that Vesttoo modeled the risk for. We take the integrity of our business very seriously and are conducting a comprehensive third party audit to ensure our due diligence processes continue to be robust.”
“A few members of the leadership team have decided not to wait for the results of the audit and have decided to leave, and we respect their decision,” added Vesttoo.
Vesttoo first hit the coveted unicorn status in October of 2022 when the firm raised $80 Million in a Series C financing round that left it with a $1.1 billion valuation. And it was just this past May that the firm hit a valuation of as much as $2 billion.
Founded in 2018 by CEO Yaniv Bertele, CPO Alon Lifshitz, and CTO Ben Zickel,, Vesttoo specializes in data-driven risk management solutions for the P&C and longevity markets, using “cutting-edge technologies to transfer General Insurance, Lapse, and Longevity risk to the capital markets.” Vesttoo declares that it provides insurers and pension funds with low-cost, strategic risk transfer to the capital markets, while investors benefit from correlated, high-yield investments with remote loss possibilities.
As a one-stop-shop provider, Vesttoo says that its technological platform takes care of every aspect of the deal. From accurate AI-based risk modeling to structuring, pricing and performance monitoring – with no upfront fees or frictional costs.
