ActiveQuote – specialist broker for health & protection insurance products with its own UK price comparison site – is rapidly expanding operations and creating more than 70 new jobs with Welsh Government support.
ActiveQuote has developed its own highly sophisticated software to provide on-line price comparisons for these specialist insurance products and uses its own technology platform to deliver the services on behalf of some of the UK’s largest aggregators.
The Cardiff Bay business has recently won four significant contracts to operate health insurance and protection insurance comparison sites on behalf of Confused.com, GoCompare, Money.co.uk and uSwitch.
The Welsh Government is providing £600,000 of business finance to support the creation of 74 new jobs and ensure that the expansion goes ahead in Wales rather than overseas.
The company has already created 32 of the 74 new jobs and anticipates reaching 100 people in the New Year when it moves from Mount Stuart Square to larger Grade A offices at Global Reach, Dunleavy Drive, Cardiff Bay, directly opposite the forthcoming Ice Arena Wales.
Economy Minister Edwina Hart said: “This is an exciting project creating a range of skilled jobs in a business that underpins one of Wales’ most high profile sub-sectors – price comparison sites. Wales has established an excellent reputation as a great location for aggregator sites and is home to a number of the UK’s leading sites.
“ActiveQuote is an important company within the sector and I am delighted the Welsh Government was able to support its rapid growth and its future expansion plans are very welcome news.”
ActiveQuote.com was established by Dr Richard Theo who has a PhD in Computer Networks from Cardiff University and applied his software expertise to innovate within financial services.
He stepped in to fill a gap in the market when he saw there was little on offer when it came to price comparison sites for health insurance, despite it being the fifth most popular insurance product in the UK.
ActiveQuote pioneered the first full comparison solution for health insurance providing accurate comparisons of policies and benefits designed to help people find the cover that most closely meets their needs, rather than just the cheapest.
In 2012, the company expanded its products to include income protection and life insurance. These helped to increase turnover by 410% between 2011 and 2013. This year ActiveQuote won the Fastest Growing Firm in Cardiff category of the Wales Fast Growth 50 Awards, which also recognised the company as the sixth fastest growing firm in Wales.
Dr Theo said: “The innovative application of technology to develop the best health and protection insurance comparison is the key to our success. We have successfully developed a system that is not only user-friendly but also provides as much information and clarity to customers as possible, making the comparison of complicated insurance products much easier.
“It is this technology, backed by the experience and expertise of our staff, that has enabled us to win contracts with some of the leading aggregators in the UK. We intend to build on this expertise and develop new online propositions in the area of Online Savings and Investments which will be launched under a new brand in 2015.”