Richard King targets direct insurers as Munich Re-backed telematics venture goes live

Ticker, the new telematics venture of Ingenie founder Richard King, has gone live.

The start-up, which has Gary Lineker and Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis among its investors, has an MGA arrangement with Munich Re’s Digital Partners. It is the start-up’s only capacity provider.

It will offer policies to new drivers aged 17-55, new drivers on a parent’s policy, and learner drivers, using what it describes as the next generation of telematics technology to price competitively. It plans to launch van in the next few weeks and an over-70s product by the end of the year.

King spoke exclusively to Insurance Times, revealing Munich Re had granted the team enough capacity to ensure they were not limited on volume. By Q1 of next year he said the business would be profitable and challenging the direct insurers.

“What we have is backing from one of the biggest insurers in the world, so we’ve got plenty of capacity,” King said.

“It means we haven’t got to spend our time going around the city trying to get underwriters and trying to beg, steal and borrow to get capacity. 

“Our capacity is far greater than any of the broker players out there, which puts us in a position to compete with direct writers.”

Unlike other telematics firms, there is no plan for Ticker to partner with other insurers as a service provider.

“Our focus will be on creating Ticker to be a significant brand and volume player in the market,” King added.

Pricing

But King vows Ticker will not price aggressively to achieve volume. He says the private investors are trusting the team with a “sensible pricing strategy”, and that by the end of the first year Ticker will have found its “sweet spot” on pricing.

“We don’t have aggressive targets for year one because big bangs go bang,” King said. “We’re under no pressure financially to go and hoover up the market.”

According to King, Ticker is the first company to go live with the self-installable and autonomous telematics technology being used. The Ticker development team has been working for 18 months to take the product live, and have also created their own bespoke pricing algorithms.

King says it will eliminate costs of between £100-£150 per policyholder compared to their direct rivals. 

“Our raison d’être is to take telematics to a much wider market,” King says. By the year end the company will be targeting the UK’s four million young drivers, four million van drivers and five million over 70s drivers - altogether making up a third of the country’s drivers.

Ticker is billed to be listed on two of the major price comparison websites from this summer, and King said the business would gain great exposure from having Lineker and Paphitis on board.

Lineker has 7.2 million followers on twitter, and King said this would be “rocket fuel” for the start-up.

“It’s incredibly rare for a start-up to have those build slots before we’ve even gone live,” King said. “That just reflects the quality of the team, the proposition, the technology, and the backing and capacity from Munich Re.” 

Team

Ticker currently comprises of 25 staff members across pricing, development and marketing, with sales and servicing outsourced to Hood Group.

King said it was the quality of the team and the board that had been responsible for the support Ticker has received so far.

King has hired ex-Ingenie chief executive Mike Ketteringham as chief underwriting officer. Steve Broughton is chairman, who also worked with King at Ingenie.

The board includes current Ardonagh chief operating officer Adrian Brown and Kerry Michael, a former commercial director of the RAC.

They are supported by advisors to the board, Barry Smith (ex-chief executive of Ageas) and Andy Warren (former head of claims at RSA).

Both have invested in the business. Smith is providing his vast experience to advise on growth, and Warren is working alongside King and Ketteringham to build the claims operation.

“The quality of the team that I’ve pulled together is the best that I’ve ever worked with by far,” King said. “They’ve worked in such a connected and clever manner. I’m really impressed and proud of the team. It’s the best team I’ve ever pulled together in my whole working career.”