Motor insurance firm shifts gears as it secures major investment

Motor insurance claims business, Inspire Claims, has rebranded to Cogent Claims as it targets growth following significant investment from BHL (UK) Holdings Limited (BHL UK).  

BHL UK’s business and investment portfolio includes motor legal services firm Minster Law, LEI provider Coral Insurance, telematics business ThingCo and price comparison site Compare The Market. 

Cogent Claims is also moving from Leeds to Wakefield, where it will sit alongside Minster Law, which has its HQ in the town.  

BHL UK has taken a majority shareholding in Cogent Claims, which was founded by CEO Matt Rawling in 2017 and employs around 30 people.

Cogent Claims offers a liability agnostic motor claims servicing proposition to the MGA, Insurer and Broker market.

Rawling said the BHL UK investment will be a “game changer” for Cogent Claims.

He added: “Since the business was established in 2017, we have been quietly and diligently building our capability and partnership base.

“Our decision to rebrand to Cogent Claims marks the evolution that the business has made since its inception and our renewed appetite for forging new partnerships to support our growth agenda.

“With the investment from BHL UK we are now set to significantly ramp up our business development strategy to take our compelling suite of services to the insurer, broker and MGA markets.”

On joining the growing portfolio of brands within the BHL UK investment portfolio, he added: “We believe closer collaboration with other parts of the BHL UK investment portfolio will represent another big win from the investment.

“As a group of businesses, we have already established strong trading relationships but there are clear synergies to our respect propositions and wider opportunities to work together and build out our client base, by offering a portfolio of highly complementary technology, data, insurance, and claims-related services.”

Ian Leech, CFO of BHL UK, said: “This is a significant new investment by BHL UK, following on from our investment in ThingCo, announced in January 2021 and the recent launch of Coral Insurance into the legal expenses market.

“Cogent Claims is a dynamic, highly entrepreneurial business that is unafraid of change and keen to explore new ways to create profitable growth in a rapidly changing motor sector.

“We found their ability to offer a cradle-to-grave motor proposition complemented with a proven capability in interpretation and use of telematics data to be something compellingly different.

“It became clear during our discussions with Matt that he has a powerful proposition with a close fit to other businesses in our portfolio.”