Manchester-HQd fintech Ripe has announced the appointment of Jamie Richards as head of M&A.
Richards will lead Ripe’s acquisitions strategy as it further expands the business through targeted acquisitions across commercial and specialist personal lines. This is in addition to Ripe’s continued focus on delivering strong organic growth.
After a 10-year career at Deloitte, as a senior member and assistant director of the financial institution’s group M&A team, Richards joins Ripe, one of the UK’s most innovative fintechs, as it accelerates expansion plans.
His appointment adds strong credentials to the Ripe team, with expertise across the insurance value chain. Richards has significant deal experience across a range of clients including founder led businesses, private equity, global insurers and intermediaries.
“Ripe has an exceptionally unique and exciting proposition, which attracted me to this new role after 10 years at Deloitte,” Richards said. “I’m thrilled to join the business at this time and be a part of its ambitious growth plans. I’ll be hitting the ground running, working on M&A opportunities where Ripe can add significant value to acquired businesses, especially through its marketing capabilities and proprietary technology platform.”
Paul Williams, chief executive of Ripe, added: “Following our first acquisition of Craftinsure last year, this appointment reflects the importance of M&A in our future expansion plans. The investment of Aquiline Capital Partners in 2022 gives Ripe the firepower for our next growth phase, which will now be supercharged by our new head of M&A.
“With his experience and profile, Jamie will enable us to unlock new opportunities. We have a clear strategy – to identify quality businesses with existing specialisms which could benefit from our unique technology and digital marketing expertise to turbo-charge growth. We will be targeted and highly selective, so where we find the right fit, we can bring flexible deal structures and a strong valuation for potential vendors. Our door is open.”
