Fintech focused investment house Aquiline Capital has agreed to acquire a majority stake in UK-based digital underwriting and insurance distribution platform Ripe following a 27% revenue growth last year.
Founded in 1997, Ripe has more than 280,000 policyholders across personal and small commercial lines. It also provides specialist protection across golf, boats, caravans, cycles as well as insurance to small business owners such as personal trainers, musicians and photographers. It allows customers to build their own policy tailored to their needs.
Jeff Greenberg, chairman and CEO at Aquiline, said, “The way people buy insurance is changing. As more individuals turn to online platforms to purchase insurance, Ripe offers a simple process for buying policies online while still ensuring quality coverage at a good value. We believe that John, Paul, and their team have built a high-quality and scalable digital platform that can identify customer demands, and design and distribute products to address these efficiently. We are excited to partner with them through the next phase of their journey.”
Houlihan Lokey provided corporate finance advice and Norton Rose Fulbright provided legal advice to Aquiline. Due diligence was performed by Deloitte (financial, tax and regulatory) and Crosslake Technologies (technology).
The $6.9bn-managing Aquiline smashed the target for its latest private equity fundraise last year by collecting more than $2bn for a final close for Aquiline Financial Services Fund IV.
It collected more than $1.1bn for the final close of its third fund in 2016, having initially targeted $1bn.
The transatlantic private equity investor bought into Equistone-backed workplace financial education specialist Wealth at Work five months ago.
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