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A new motor-focused MGA is set to hit in the UK market later this year, backed by Berkshire Hathaway International Insurance.
Hedgehog Insurance, founded by CEO Pete Storey and business partner Ben Gower, who co-own travel insurer MGA 1Cover, will target drivers who face higher than average premiums.
The new MGA will be based in Gibraltar with its UK underwriting and claims handled by Cardiff-based sister company Rostella, run by director Nigel Lombard, who has 25 years’ experience in car insurance, e-commerce and operations.
Storey told Insurance Business that the MGA would be targeting what it sees as an underserved segment of the market – drivers aged 21 to mid-40s who 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.
“We think we can nip in and pick up some of the underserved bits of the market to give customers what they want and hopefully make a profit out of it too,” he said.
Tech-led Hedgehog will use automated underwriting and data analysis, which it says will allow for advanced risk pricing and fraud prevention.
“We think that’s an area of the market that we will be able to be price competitive in, relative to other suppliers, and in which the various technology and data things that we’ve got going on give us a bit of an advantage,” Storey went on to say.
The CEO told Insurance Business that the firm is aiming to hit £20 million of GWP in its first 12 months of business, and said he is “very confident” that the MGA will be fully up and running in Q4 this year.
UK director Lombard said the business aims to have 50,000 policyholders on its books after two years.
The MGA is looking to recruit 50 new staff for its Cardiff office, including around six underwriters, according to Storey.
The CEO said that he was not deterred by the challenging dynamics in the UK motor market today, which include changes to the Ogden rate and the ongoing personal injury reforms.
“The thing for us is that these things in the market affect all the players in it,” he said. “We don’t have a historic set of issues, so it doesn’t really matter to us as such. It is the market in which we are operating, so we just have to deal with it as best we can and adapt. We are in a good place to be changing what goes on as new rules and regulations come into place, and go forwards.”
