honcho, the Durham-based fintech startup taking on the insurance distribution market,
have today announced the final stage of their 2019-2020 £2.25m capital investment raise.
First launched last summer with investment from Maven Capital Partners and followed this spring with further Maven investment plus a new investment from specialist VC Insurtech Gateway alongside crowd investors on the Crowdcube platform, the raise has just £300k of remaining capacity.
This summer honcho are launching for the first time on the Seedrs crowdfunding platform, bringing the opportunity to invest in honcho’s unique reverse auction marketplace to crowd investors for the final time this year. With over a thousand crowd investors already supporting the business the insurtech pioneer sees offering an investment in honcho via Seedrs as important to the further diversification of their investor base.
Speaking about the raise on Seedrs, CEO Gavin Sewell said:
“This will be the third time that we’ve offered an investment in honcho to the
general public, and it continues to be a really important part of our investment mix.
Whilst we are very well supported by our two institutional investors, crowd investors
bring a very different kind of dynamic to our business and one that we’re really keen
on. Our crowd investors get to have early access to our products and help shape
their design whilst at the same time having the opportunity to invest in an early
stage business that, in most startups, would not be possible.
“Seedrs is a great crowdfunding platform with over £280m in investment raised
through them last year. Critically for us, they have a track record in fintech and
insurtech businesses including Revolut, Wrisk and Pluto amongst many others.
We’re really excited to be bringing honcho to Seedrs as well.”
In an insurance market dominated by price comparison sites, honcho asks its customers to choose insurance cover that matches their needs rather than simply choosing the cheapest policy irrespective of the protection it gives them. The honcho iPhone and Android apps help consumers to easily compare different quotes in terms of their closeness of fit to what was asked for, with honcho believing that consumers are making potentially huge decisions on insurance cover without being aware of their implications.
Commercial director, Frank Speight, said:
“For years we’ve been conditioned by the big price comparison sites into believing
that “cheap” is the only thing to look for in insurance, yet ironically insurance is one
of the most critical purchasing decisions to get right in terms of the impact it could
have on you if you choose badly. Cheap is only any good if it gives you the level of
cover that you need such that, if the worst happens and you need to claim, you’ve
actually got the backup that matches your needs.
If you were buying a car, a TV or even some clothes, the chances are you’d have a set
of things that you wanted in your purchase and you’d then try to find something that
matched your needs, at the best possible price. This is what honcho brings to
insurance. We call it protection discovery, and we’re on a mission to get drivers
across Britain to buy the insurance cover that is right for them, at the best possible
price.”
The honcho crowd raise on Seedrs launches on Monday July 13th 2020. For more
information see gethoncho.com/invest-in-honcho.
Be the first to comment