New motor MGA sets sights on high premium drivers

A new motor insurance provider has launched, with its aim to be top of the list on aggregator sites.

Gibraltar-based MGA, Hedgehog is the brain-child of founders Pete Storey and Ben Gower, who also own one of the largest travel insurance MGAs in Australia and New Zealand, 1Cover.

The company’s UK offices are located in Cardiff, after careful consideration of many cities across the country. But due to the technology focus and the work carried out by Cardiff University, Storey and Gower felt Cardiff was the right fit.

Policies will be underwritten by Cardiff-based sister company Rostella, who will also handle claims. Rostella is run by director Nigel Lombard who has 25 years of experience in car insurance, e-commerce and operations.

While the company has only just launched, it has big plans for its first three years of operation.

Storey said: “Within three years, we want to have over 65,000 policies in place and reporting at least £50m of GWP.”

Of those 65,000, it hopes to have around 50,000 customers in the 21 to mid-40s range that face higher than average premiums for reasons such as holding points on their licence, a driving conviction, or being blacklisted by certain insurers because of their postcode.

“This is no made-up, pie in the sky target,” Storey added. “But is based on cold hard data analysis and is supported by our capacity provider.”

The company also boasts its own platform to operate on, without having to rely on other companies for that, ultimately driving up the cost.

Storey continued: “Having our own technology platform gives us complete control and flexibility to ensure we can provide sophisticated policy optimisation for individual customers and make full use of additional data sources such as My Licence. It also means we have the complete dedication and attention of our software provider – not something many insurance providers can boast.”

Nigel Lombard added: “By implementing augmented capabilities and automated processes our employees can focus on the fun stuff - including driving improvement in our processes, the customer experience and in pricing risks correctly - rather than getting caught up in day to day drudgery.”

The launch partner is Confused.com, while other backers include Carpenters Group, Direct Group and Premium Credit.