Nottingham-based insurance data intelligence provider, Percayso Inform, has announced a second major investment in its fast-growing business with a £2.7m fundraise led by industry veteran, Neil Utley, and its existing venture capital investor, Praetura Ventures.
Since its launch in the UK insurance market three years ago, a growing number of insurers, brokers and MGAs in both personal and commercial lines have partnered with Percayso to take advantage of its smart solutions to turn insurance data into intelligence, insight and outcomes.
Its 65-strong client base now includes Ageas, Covea, Direct Line, Markerstudy, Somerset Bridge, The AA and many more.
Following the investment led by Praetura Ventures in March last year, Percayso extended its proposition to deliver a full quote intelligence suite. Its technology aggregates data from many different sources, allowing intelligence to be accessed with a simple API call at significant volume, while its platform and advanced tech allows insurance providers to take control of their own strategies and deployment by enabling rules and models to be used in their own environments via a SaaS model.
And in a transformational deal for the business this year, it also acquired Cazana – now branded Percayso Vehicle Intelligence – marking a major step forward in its plans to increase its footprint across the UK motor insurance market.
Rich Tomlinson, Managing Director at Percayso, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Neil as an investor. He has a breadth of experience and knowledge to share from his 30 plus years of working in our industry at the highest level.
“In particular, his expertise in the motor insurance market will be invaluable in helping us to achieve our ambitions for Percayso Vehicle Intelligence. And we’re hugely proud that Praetura Ventures are continuing to support us.
“We’ve forged a fantastic relationship and in particular, I’d like to offer special thanks to Guy Weaver from their team who played a critical role in the Cazana acquisition.
“As we look ahead, we believe that Percayso Inform will play a key role in helping insurance providers of all shapes and sizes to get more out of the wealth of data available to enable them to write better business. The combined skills and experience that Neil and Praetura Ventures bring to our business will undoubtedly help us to accelerate our growth plans.”
Utley was chairman at Hastings where he led the management buyout from Insurance Australia Group in 2009, and led the insurer through its initial public offering in 2015. Prior to this, he held CEO roles with Privilege Insurance and Cox Insurance Group.
Commenting on his decision to invest in Percayso, he said: “Rich and his team are building one of the most exciting businesses to have emerged in our industry in many years. UK insurance providers have been crying out for a flexible, scalable and easy to integrate data intelligence solution.
“I’m incredibly impressed with all that Percayso has achieved so far and look forward to helping the team take the business to the next level.”
David Foreman, Managing Director at Praetura Ventures, added: “Our relationship with Percayso has gone from strength to strength over the past 16 months, and our team have been impressed with the progress that Percayso has made in such a short space of time.
“We will be continuing with our More Than Money support and couldn’t be more excited about the road ahead.”
Peel Hunt advised Percayso on the fund raise and the legal team at Knights acted for Percayso. The Praetura Ventures team were advised by the legal team at Irwin Mitchell.
