Ron Gonen, managing director at Allianz Life Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2025.
Ron Gonen started his career in public market investing, but was always passionate about technology entrepreneurship and private capital markets. “I was always building my network among VC investors and entrepreneurs in preparation for a transition,” he says. “Around seven years ago, the opportunity to join Allianz Life Ventures came along. I relocated to Minneapolis and I have been helping build the unit with my team over the past six and a half years.”
Allianz Life Ventures is a $175m evergreen fund that invests in insurtech, fintech, digital health and enterprise technology. The team has made 24 direct investments so far, mainly focusing on series A and B investments with a typical initial cheque size ranging between $3m to $5m.
“We feel we can get sufficient ownership stakes at those stages to partner with the companies,” he says.
Allianz Life Ventures’ recent investments include Homethrive, a provider of technology-enabled care-giving solutions, and Empathy, a startup offering services to those dealing with grief and loss.
“I was always building my network among VC investors and entrepreneurs in preparation for a transition”
Gonen says he finds it inspiring to interact with founders and takes this beyond Allianz Life. He and the team have partnered with the MSP Equity Fund to support the local startup ecosystem.
“It is both an accelerator and a fund-of-funds programme that supports underrepresented founders. The fund has backed 10 companies that they accelerate from an early stage, and we support them with mentorship and connections within the Allianz network,” he says.
Gonen is excited about AI’s potential to transform industries. “There are exciting companies that we have evaluated that are using AI to replicate some of the decision-making that our underwriters and claims professionals would be doing,” he says. “It can help them process their workflows more rapidly and rely on technology as a complement with their daily tasks.”
See the full list of Emerging Leaders 2025 here.
