Halkett and Bought By Many reveal international growth ambitions

Charlotte Halkett and Bought By Many have ambitions to move into more international markets.

In 2018, the business grew total UK GWP 75% year on year and more than 600% over the last four years, and it wants to build on that.

Content marketing manager, Digby Bodenham said: “The growth will come from continuing to eat up market share of the UK pet insurance market as we grow brand awareness and refine our products and from this year’s launch in Sweden.”

But he said the company is thinking about more international markets.

Halkett said: “We want to expand into more international markets. We are going to Sweden, but we have aspirations to go into other regions. Sweden won’t be the only international launch by Bought By Many.”

However, it is understood that any further launch, other than Sweden, will not happen this year.

Potential for Sweden

Bodenham explained how the move into Sweden is exciting on different fronts for the company.

He said: “Sweden will be a huge market for us, it is not just a jump into a smaller market. But the percentage of pets in Sweden that are insured is more than the UK.

“I think it is more than 50%. It’s huge.”

On the other hand, Bodenham described how the technology among the incumbents is ahead of what the UK has to offer.

“The other thing with Sweden is how technologically advanced it is, beyond the UK. There is a level of things that traditional insurers in Sweden are doing that we just aren’t doing here in the UK.

“So, it is really about going there and proving that we can stand up and compete with this technology and these other players, and then bringing those learnings back home.”

Growth in Pet

Bought By Many launched its pet insurance product back in 2017, after seeing what the customer needed based on over a million anonymised internet searches.

Bodenham explained: “It wasn’t necessarily what people were telling us, it was what people were searching online that doesn’t even exist. That is how we created products. It was looking at what people wanted, where the gaps were, and building a product based around that.”

Now, it sees the major growth, building on the 75% from last year, coming from that part of the business.

Halkett said: “Insurance needs are changing, but the actual make up of British families aren’t. Pet insurance and the pet business is growing massively.”

But she says that while there are a lot of strong competitors, the way Bought By Many is different is what gives it the edge.

“There are a lot of competitors, but a lot of them are underwritten by the same insurer, so a lot of the products aren’t that different.

“We stand out because we have the highest level of cover in the market.”

Settling in

Having started her new role as chief commercial officer last week, Halkett said the decision to leave buzzvault was “a difficult one,” but said the opportunity to work at Bought By Many and its chief executive, Steven Mendel, was too good to refuse.

“I had secretly been cheering them from the sidelines  for a long time,” she said.

“Then, a lot of things came together, Steve wanted to create this role of chief commercial officer, I had been in contact with him for years, and the things these guys are doing is phenomenal. I had always massively admired the company.”

She then wished her old colleagues at buzzvault and buzzmove the best.

“It was a difficult decision to move away from buzzvault. I became emotionally involved. I had a lot of great colleagues but also friends there, but we achieved what we wanted to do in that phase which was the launch.

“I feel I have left them in a really good place, they have great people there. I felt I was able to really add a lot and take them to that huge milestone.

“I really did leave on good terms and, of course, I really want them to succeed.”