Milestone makes Manchester firm one of UK’s biggest insurtech companies
Manchester-based Ripe Insurance has surpassed the 200,000 policyholder mark, making it one of the largest insurtech companies in the UK.
The news comes as Ripe makes two new hires for its data analytics team.
Ryan Bothwell is a data scientist with a PHD in astrophysics.
His role is partly funded by the Government’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, in the form of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Salford.
Under university supervision and with access to their academic expertise, Bothwell will work full time at Ripe looking at data and machine-learning algorithms to influence business decisions.
Chris Jones joins as insight and analytics manager.
Jones has spent seven years working in insurance, most recently at Pen Underwriting.
He will be responsible for optimising the business’ use of data with a focus on underwriting performance, pricing and marketing data.
John Woosey, managing director of Ripe Insurance, said: “This is a landmark moment in our business.
“From our roots in golf insurance we have been highly-focused on creating an efficient model to target niche personal and business insurance sectors and this strategy is paying off.
“Over the last few years our growth has been accelerating and we’ve seen a 50,000 increase in our policyholders since mid-2016.
“I am personally proud that our very first policyholder is still a customer of ours, 20 years on. Bringing Chris and Ryan on board will help drive our plans to lead the insurtech sector.”
Ripe, which employs more than 60 people at its office in South Manchester, reported a 22% increase in turnover for 2017.
The results for the year ending December 31, 2017, marked the 10th consecutive year of annual growth for the company which saw revenues rise from £9.2m in 2016 to £11.2m in 2017.
Ripe recently made the ‘Sunday Times Tech Track Ones to Watch Shortlist’, the Northern Tech 100 list, and was voted the ‘UK’s Best Specialist Insurance Provider’ at the Insurance Choice Awards.
