Peter Thompson: Uinsure’s technology is ‘embedded insurance coming to life’

After stepping down from his role as chief executive of BGL Insurance in March 2023 – a company he had been with for more than 16 fruitful years – Peter Thompson has kicked 2024 off with a bang, re-entering the general insurance market in a “non-executive capacity” by teaming up with home insurance insurtech Uinsure.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times ahead of announcing Lloyds Development Capital’s (LDC) minority investment in Uinsure on 12 February 2024, Thompson radiated excitement about helping the “properly ground-breaking” technology company gain more insurance industry savvy in his new position as non-executive director.

He said: “The closer I got to the business, the more excited I got, to the extent that I’ve invested myself now into the Uinsure business and story. It’s an exciting tale of growth.”

To support this proposed growth, Thompson plans to share his little black book of insurance contacts with Uinsure’s management, as well as make good use of his insurance-specific knowledge – for example, around pricing – to optimise Uinsure’s processes.

‘Revolutionary’ technology

Founded in 2007 by chief executive Simon Taylor, Uinsure works with independent financial advisors and mortgage brokers.

Its proprietary, cloud-based platform is integrated into the mortgage application process to automatically provide home, buildings and content insurance quotes at key points in the mortgage submission process – for example, at the exchange of contracts – from a panel of UK insurers including RSA, LV= and Ageas.

Uinsure’s technology pulls the majority of the information needed for an insurance quote from the mortgage application form itself.

For Thompson, this functionality is “revolutionary” and symbolises “embedded insurance coming to life”.

“This is why I think it’s fascinating to put non-insurance brains into an insurance industry,” he said. “You can start rewriting the way that business should be done.

“To be able to find a price for a customer on the back of either two questions or – with the application programming interface – no questions, is truly phenomenal.

“When the mortgage intermediary is focused on all the regulation around the mortgage transaction, that’s incredibly time consuming, so to go through another 50, 60 question process for their customer to get a home insurance quote just doesn’t get the time of day.

“But, the Uinsure approach, it genuinely is revolutionary. That just slapped me in the face.”

Thompson believes that Uinsure presents a “brilliant opportunity to capture the customer and make sure that all of their needs are wrapped up at that point of sale”.

Embedded insurance opportunity

Uinsure’s growth ambitions are currently focused around a four-year plan.

The private equity investment from LDC supports its strategy to scale and will help the insurtech complete acquisitions, enter other home insurance-related niches – such as mid net worth and lettings cover – hire more insurance expertise, develop a direct to consumer proposition and further expand its customer base of building societies, banks and lenders.

However, for Thompson, it is Uinsure’s embedded insurance focus that is making it a modern and attractive option for potential partners.

He explained: “Embedded insurance is talked about an awful lot.

“This is a great example of how you can embed insurance so that you are serving your propositions to customers in a very intuitive and relevant way at the right time, when the customer is thinking about all the home-related considerations.

“It’s a perfect time to embed that home insurance process in that overall conversation with the customer.”