T-Mobile Fast Growth Business of the Year 2008

Business description: InsureandGo was the first to offer increasingly web-savvy consumers an alternative for travel insurance. As more travellers ditched the package holiday, InsureandGo offered them a bespoke sales system that asked just three questions before offering a highly competitive quote. Launched in 2000, it now has a turnover of more than £49m and a customer base of two million.

Judges’ comments: During the late 1990s the travel market began to change significantly, with low cost airlines encouraging millions of people to travel independently rather than use tour operators. The founders of InsurandGo recognises that this would create a vast new market in travel insurance, and set out to provide the best product they could to meet the needs of this audience. Simplicity and clarity have been paramount within the company’s literature and policies, so that potential customers need answer just three questions to be able to take out a new policy, drastically improving the ease of use compared to other insurers in InsureandGo’s early days. And in line with the new cost-conscious travellers, InsurandGo charged a small fraction of what its competitors charged through travel agents, and often for a better product.

The success has been nothing short of breathtaking, culminating in the £50 million of revenue reported in the latest accounts available. In the year to December 2002, the business had turnover of just £5 million in four years the business has grown tenfold. All too often with such stories there is a trail of poor service and unhappy customers; with InsureandGo the reverse seems to be the case, with countless awards and praise for the high quality of its cover and service. The judges were thoroughly impressed with the offering, and believe that there is plenty more growth potential for this exciting business yet. InsureandGo’s management have now branched out beyond just travel insurance, opening up significantly larger markets to aim at.

InsureandGo is a shining example of entrepreneurial excellence, and the judges are proud to make them the T-Mobile Fast Growth Business of the Year 2008.

www.insureandgo.com