Meet John Woosey, Founder and Managing Director at Digital Insurance Company: Ripe

Tell us about Ripe

 

Ripe exists to empower customers with hyper-targeted digital insurance products. Our ethos is to make buying insurance simple, clear, fast, and tailored. 

Since launching our first product in 1998, Ripe has become one of the largest specialist insurtech companies in the UK. We have over 350,000 customers ranging from small businesses to golfers, cyclists, boat, and motorhome owners.  

Using our proprietary technology, we have created a smoother digital experience for consumers and small businesses with products tailored to their needs. Our tech-led approach enables customers to buy a policy online in a few minutes, with just a few clicks.

 

 

What attracted you to Ripe?

 

I founded Ripe to offer a fresh approach to insurance, and we’ve had ambitious plans for growth ever since. Our technology, built from the ground-up, allows us to quickly adapt to changing market and customer demands. 

Our strength lies in our ability to be agile, deploy new products rapidly (in as little as six weeks) and immediately make changes in response to customer feedback. For example, in response to the Covid-19 lockdown rules, we introduced a new policy for personal trainers over a single weekend, to ensure our policyholders were safely covered to offer online workouts and could continue to operate when gyms closed.

Deep marketing expertise has also always been a key part of Ripe’s DNA, enabling us to better target and reach new sectors. Combined with our tech capabilities, this makes Ripe a unique player in the insurance space.

 

 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 

Ripe’s growth has accelerated significantly in recent years. At the end of 2021, we secured investment from private investment firm, Aquiline Capital Partners. Since then, we’ve been working closely with Aquiline to further expand the capabilities of our technology platform, reach new customers through innovative channels and expedite our ambitions for international expansion. 

Last year, we embarked on the next phase of growth when we acquired specialist boat insurer, Craftinsure. Together with Ripe’s existing Insure4Boats product, this acquisition doubled our boat insurance market penetration overnight. It was an important first step in our M&A journey, and we anticipate many more future acquisitions in the specialist leisure, lifestyle, and small business markets. 

 

What can we hope to see from Ripe in the future?

 

Ripe’s unwavering focus on innovation, customer-centricity, and talent acquisition has fuelled our exponential organic growth and established it as a leader in the insurtech space. We were also recently delighted to have been named as one of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work in 2024 – a testament to our positive working environment and commitment of our team.

We’ll continue investing in our proprietary technology to further expand our current product portfolio and deliver double-digit growth each year. This includes supercharging our expansion into the SME sector over the next 12 months, building on the successful launch of our product for hair and beauty businesses. With a strong new product pipeline, we have an ambitious goal to serve more than one million customers through our various policies and are well on the way to achieving this.