Acrisure acquires CRK; Sian Fisher's next move; Premium Credit hire personal lines and e-trade director

From Post this week

Insurance Post reveals new editor

Briefing: Government makes demands to Biba in response to ‘disturbing remuneration’ practices

E-scooter legislation must be mandated ‘urgently’ amid further trial extensions

Dive In Festival: Doing things the same way we’ve always done just ‘won’t cut it’, says Neal

Dive In Festival: Leaders want more effort to promote diversity to avoid the next version of the internet becoming a ‘dystopian nightmare’

Analysis: The power of shareholders

Data Analysis: FOS decisions reveal how customers are being treated

From people this week

Interview: John O’Roarke and Ronan McCann, HF (formerly Horwich Farrelly)

Markerstudy’s Clare Lunn is set to lead the charge against opportunistic fraud

Trade Voice: LMA’s Sheila Cameron explains why the Data Council’s digital drive is a breakthrough for the industry

Blog: Will the risk and costs of legalising e-scooters outweigh the benefits?

Pick of the Week

Acrisure acquires UK-Based CRK Commercial Insurance Services

Date announced: 28 September

Deal value: Undisclosed

Acrisure has announced the acquisition of CRK Commercial Insurance Services, the specialist commercial schemes provider. The deal is expected to close at the start of October 2022.

In the last nine years, Acrisure has completed or has under signed letter of intent more than 800 partnerships globally, including nine in the UK.

Darren Wills and his management team will continue to operate CRK under the CRK brand as part of Acrisure UK Retail. The CRK team will benefit from Acrisure’s technology capabilities and global network of brokers and MGA’s.

“I look forward to welcoming CRK to Acrisure,” said Mark McIlquham, president of Acrisure UK Retail. “We are excited to collaborate with CRK and Darren. CRK is a profoundly entrepreneurial and agile business with a fantastic client base. We were particularly attracted by the truly bespoke, unique schemes that the team have developed with their in-depth knowledge and understanding of specific trades and industries.”

Darren Wills added:  “Once I had met Mark and the Acrisure team, it was quickly apparent that the Acrisure model was perfect for me and CRK. Acrisure allows me to carry on running the business I am passionate about and have built up since 2000 as well as enables me to grow and diversify. I look forward to making CRK even more successful as part of Acrisure.”

Acrisure expects to make further announcements of new UK acquisitions and partnerships in the near term. It has continued to expand globally in 2022, with operations now in 15 countries. The company recently closed $725m in Series B-2 Preferred Equity and received a $23bn (£20.6bn) valuation, representing a 31% increase from its last preferred equity raise in March 2021.

Deals/News of the Week

Rokstone takes engineering team from Globe Underwriting and creates power, construction & engineering -powerhouse

Date announced: 22 September

Deal value: Undisclosed

Rokstone, part of the Aventum Group, has centralised its power, construction and engineering teams into one central house for brokers.

Peter Rossell, Dan Watson and Anthony Palmer, all senior engineering underwriters at Globe Underwriting have joined Rokstone. The trio join Ian Green and David Turner for a combined 150 years of underwriting experience.

Rokstone’s new combined powerhouse offers brokers a facility with a consolidated maximum PML line of $27.5m. Operational Power Generation has a typical maximum line of $5m, deployed on non-proportional structures. Capacity is drawn from a number of A rated carriers.

Ian Anson, managing director, Rokstone comments: “There are potentially large opportunities opening up in both the Power and Construction markets in 2023. By bringing together this team of market leading talent, we believe that we are now a ‘go to’ market in both these Specialty lines.”

Sian Fisher backs Insurtech Peachy’s mission to democratise access to private healthcare

Date announced: 12 September

Deal value: Undisclosed

Insurtech Peachy has received a $1.6m boost from a list of former executives of the insurance world, including former CII CEO Sian Fisher.

Peachy uses an end-to-end tech-based solution to provide flexible cover, giving easy access to private healthcare without any ongoing commitment from the customer.

The startup has been under development for 3 years and is the brainchild of former NHS surgeon, strategy and M&A professional and senior executive at Bupa, Amit Patel.

Founder and CEO of Peachy, Amit Patel said, “My former career as a surgeon in the NHS and subsequent time as an executive in and around the private healthcare industry gave me all the experience, insight and exposure to see and know what works and what doesn’t. More than anything it has given me the passion to build a better way to provide access to private healthcare, making it radically more affordable and available to as many people as possible.

“We are proud of what we have built with Peachy – a true end-to-end technology-based solution that private medical insurance has been in desperate need of for years. More than anything, we are excited about the much larger cross section of the public who will now find it radically easier and more affordable to get the private healthcare they want, all of which will help ease the strain on the NHS.”

Hello Safe raises £2.8M to accelerate deploying its financial comparison solutions in the UK and further

Date announced: 20 September

Deal value: Undisclosed

Hello Safe, a fintech company that develops insurance, investment, savings and credit product comparison solutions for individuals and businesses, announced £2.8M in seed funding led by One Ragtime and Kima Ventures. With this round, Hello Safe will strengthen its teams, further improve the user experience on its platforms and expand into new product categories in the UK.

Launched in 2020, Hello Safe has more than 150,000 monthly visitors in the UK. The company simplifies comparing a range of financial products, including insurance, cryptocurrency platforms, money transfer services, credit, investment solutions and banking offers. Hello Safe now offers more than 45 comparison tools.

Developed in-house over months, Hello Safe’s provides users with thousands of pages of expert content, financial simulators and free and anonymous comparison tools. In early 2022, the company passed the one million user mark in the UK. 

“Despite the big differences between financial products, we see a lot of similarities in the need of our users in the UK for information and a better way to compare products and services. This success validates the scalability of our technology and our vision”, explains Pauline Laurore, CMO & co-founder of Hello Safe.

With this funding, Hello Safe plans to expand its 50-person team. It will add an additional 40 hires to enforce its technical, marketing and sales departments by the end of 2023. This will allow it to accelerate deploying its platform in English-speaking countries around the world.

“Hello Safe has an innovative and transparent value proposition. With its proprietary technology, the startup succeeds in producing high-value comparison tools, while limiting its development costs. Its founders’ industry experience and long-term vision make Hello Safe a solid project, promising a rapid and controlled development. Finally, the Hello Safe coach, powered by AI algorithms, will revolutionize advising financial product consumers”, adds Stéphanie Hospital, CEO and founder of One Ragtime.

And finally:

• Sheryl Fernando is to join the Association of British Insurers in the newly created role of director of membership and commercial development. Sheryl will report to ABI director general, Hannah Gurga, and takes up the role from late November.

• Premium Credit has appointed Mark Coffey as personal lines and e-trade director. In his new role Coffey will lead a sales team committed to delivering Premium Credit’s purpose to proudly support its community of customers and partners by creating opportunities through convenient payments.

• Gallagher has made a key new appointment in its Specialty leadership team, promoting Julian Raven to the role of CEO of its energy practice. Raven joined Gallagher 14 years ago when the firm first established its London-based energy practice and has been deputy managing partner for the last four years. He will report to Gallagher’s specialty CEO, Jonathan Turner.

• Aviva has renewed an agreement with Lucida Group to provide non-standard motor insurance for personal lines customers for an additional three years. The deal with Right Choice Insurance Brokers, Lucida’s specialist non-standard car insurance business, builds on a successful 12-month pilot.

• Policy Expert registered its best-ever month for sales in August as it attracted new customers and renewals in record numbers. Total home and motor policies sold grew 28% year-on-year in August, with over 128,000 policyholders either switching to Policy Expert or renewing their existing cover.

• The Insurance Charities’ current Trustee Josh Brekenfeld will be taking on the role of board chairman following John Greenway’s retirement after six years in the role. It has also appointed several others to its board and committees.

• The Lloyd’s Market Association has begun the commencement of its Graduate Wording Training Scheme. This is a new initiative designed to produced qualified and technically trained solicitors for the London insurance market. Tara Allen and Faizan Mahmood have been selected as the first trainees on the programme.