North East online insurance company, Honcho, has received a £150k investment from the Finance Durham Fund.
It’s part of a £650k fundraise by the company through CrowdCube. To date, Honcho has been promised 94% (£615k) of its target, with 10 days remaining.
The app has been developed as a reverse-auction marketplace, where insurers enter a competitive real-time bidding process to offer the best price to customers. Rather than being charged a commission, like comparison sites, insurers pay a £1 fee to bid.
The Honcho team turned to CrowdCube, because the EU funds allocated to support its launch were put on indefinite hold following Brexit. The Finance Durham Fund is managed by Maven Capital Partners and the cash will be released, providing it reaches its crowd-funding target.
“We are thrilled to have secured this support from Maven, and we look forward to moving operations to Durham and adding to its growing fin-tech cluster, with the likes of Atom Bank already thriving in the region, and working with both Business Durham and Maven as well as our CrowdCube investors as we bring honcho to market in 2018,” said Gavin Sewell, CEO honcho.
“We are immensely excited about offering such a consumer-friendly insurance service within the UK. The model is one of a kind and will be revolutionary for drivers, in particular young motorists who find securing a competitive deal incredibly challenging.”
Alex Marsh, investment manager at Maven Capital Partners added:
“The Finance Durham Fund was created with the specific aim of identifying and supporting growth of high potential businesses in Durham and the North East.
“We believe honcho is an exciting new business and we were keen to support its ambitious plans to improve the lot of motorists across the UK, as well as create jobs and enhance the economic prosperity of County Durham.”
The plan is for Honcho to launch in the summer of this year.
