OneAdvent plans US expansion in 2026 ‘to attract ambitious, bigger MGAs’ – Tim Quayle

MGA services platform OneAdvent plans to extend its geographical reach in 2026, expanding its current UK and Europe operation into the US, according to Tim Quayle, the firm’s chief executive.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times at Monte Carlo’s Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) 2025 conference (September 2025), Quayle confirmed that OneAdvent was planning an exploratory trip to the States next month ahead of a full rollout into the jurisdiction in 2026.

The move is designed “to attract ambitious, bigger MGAs” to partner with OneAdvent.

“The US is such an important geography for MGAs,” Quayle confirmed.

London-based OneAdvent, which employs around 25 staff, provides support services for MGAs, with the ambition of facilitating growth at every stage of the business lifecycle. This includes, for example, offering access to actuarial tools, helping firms with their data and advising on portfolio management. As of September 2025, there are 17 MGAs engaged with OneAdvent.

“Our aim is to be relevant across the whole lifecycle,” Quayle said.

H2 and into 2026

Alongside this “core” MGA service function, OneAdvent is additionally exploring how it can better support underwriting – this is another of its focuses for 2026.

Quayle explained: “We’re still working out how we can create a structure that we could give underwriters [that is an] alternative way in. A lot of businesses at the moment have gone out and raised capital. They want to be a standalone entity.

“What we’d like to do is be able to say to those that perhaps don’t have the risk appetite to go and set something up themselves [is] ‘here is a vehicle that we can plug you into where you can capture some of that value creation, but without going and raising a cheque from [a private equity firm]’. We’ve got the early stages of that.”

The business also wants to get “closer to capacity” – despite its passionate intention to not have to run a balance sheet.

Quayle explained: “We’re an intermediary, but I think it would help us compete with MGA platforms that are aligned to balance sheets if we have strategic relationships with capacity, [meaning] that we could help solve some of those capacity challenges.”

Although Quayle noted that this goal is still “a work in progress”, he did reveal that OneAdvent is “about to go live with our first platform level binder”.

Before getting too invested in 2026 priorities, however, Quayle is cognisant of the fact there is still work to be done in 2025’s second half.

Off the back of supporting five new MGAs to launch last year, Quayle’s 2025 target is to support 10 new MGAs to come to market. Sitting in Monte Carlo’s Café de Paris, he confirmed that OneAdvent had eight MGAs “signed and sealed” so far, with another two still on the to do list.

Quayle anticipates that OneAdvent will meet this target either by year-end or Q1 2026.

Reaching a ‘reset’ point

For Quayle, OneAdvent is a very different beast today compared to when the firm first launched 25 years ago.

He said that although the business has always been interested and involved in the MGA ecosystem, its modern proposition properly came to fruition three years ago, along with the introduction of the OneAdvent brand.

This was further cemented by a management buyout two years ago, with Quayle leading the business’ purchase from Abbey International Finance, a Dublin-based finance firm.

“We hit reset then and did a bit of a reboot on what we were doing,” Quayle explained. “So, there’s some good experience across the business, but we’re relatively early in this journey.”