It has also closed the PPI side of the business
Travel and pet insurance service provider Aquarium Software has outlined its growth plans to Insurance Times.
The business has moved to a new office in Altrincham in Manchester as well as recruiting Simon Brushett as its new technical director and board member.
It’s new open plan office in Orbit’s Charter House saw its workforce of 43 member move to the new premises.
This follows another strong period of growth for the pet and travel insurance platform.
Over the last ten years the firm has helped manage 20,000 in claims settlements and collected over £6m in pet premiums each month.
Will Walters at Aquarium Software told Insurance Times: “We have not hired anyone new [but] we have made internal promotions. At the moment we are growing out product portfolio versus headcount.”
This is because Walter believes the firm has the right talent in place.
Driving wholesale cost reductions
Brushett joined Aquarium in 2010 and has worked in projects for the likes of Capita, Direct Line Group and Legal & General. He spearheaded the insurtech’s platform proposition for wider insurance markets and addressed the demand for digital transformation.
His career spans travel and pet insurance, he joined the insurtech in 2010. Prior to this he worked in a development role in south Wales for a travel tech firm and then later joined VetEnvoy in 2006.
Brushett said: “To date digital transformation in insurance has focussed on specific objectives rather than delivering a platform-based solution for insurers.
“The wider adoption of digital will drive wholescale cost reductions, enabling insurers to bring products to market quickly and deliver critical insight to help shape the next generation of insurance products. Aquarium is leading the charge in pet and travel insurance markets and I am looking forward to further honing our clients’ offerings.”
Ed Shropshire, managing director of Aquarium Software said: “[Brushett] has a proven track record in leading the delivery of highly complex and time critical projects for Aquarium’s customers. With [Brushett] expertise added to the board, we are ideally placed to further disrupt insurance markets in the future.”
Goodbye PPI
“We have slowly been shutting down our payment protection insurance (PPI) side of the business. We don’t need 24/7 support on PPI claims anymore,” he added.
This is due to the final deadline for PPI claims being 29 August this year.
But Walters said that this would not mean getting rid of staff.
“We are not making people redundant [instead] we are reallocating those individual and giving them necessary training. We are training our current team to understand insurance more,” he said.
This training is being done via the Chartered Insurance Institute.
Aquarium Software was established in 2006 starting with endowment claims, and later moved into PPI claims in 2011, meanwhile in 2012 it diversified into pet insurance.
It claims that it coined the term ‘insurance in a box’ – it enables insurers and brands to bring an insurance proposition to market quickly and simply using automation and machine learning.
No comments yet