2014

Year

Technology

Sector

Avantia Limited

Client

ECI Partners

Acquired By

Avantia Limited / ECI Partners

Cavendish Corporate Finance, the UK’s leading sell-side mid-market M&A firm, is delighted to have advised on the MBO of the Avantia Group, the award winning financial services technology and analytics business that provides property insurance. The £57m MBO was backed by mid-market buyout specialist, ECI Partners.

Avantia, which operates the online consumer home insurance brand HomeProtect, has invested heavily in R&D, building up valuable and unique IP and capitalising on its rich and nuanced domain knowledge which allows the business to offer home insurance to many households when others consider it too difficult.

The business maintains the most effective online quote ability of any household insurer in the UK, returning a quote to over 97% of applicants, almost 25% more than its closest competitor. More than 80% of its new customers are in what other insurers would deem to be ‘difficult to insure’ risk categories.

In early 2013, Avantia hired Phillip Walter as CEO, with a mandate to grow the business and continue to invest in technology and R&D. Following Mr. Walter’s appointment, Avantia won the Transform Award and the Insurance Times Tech Award for its innovative use of data for real-time risk pricing, also placing as a finalist for the British Insurance Awards and UK Broker Awards.

Cavendish completed on the sale of 12 deals in 2013. Its previous TMT deals include: Datong plc, Redbox Recorders, Opta Sports, Primal Pictures, Lightech and Focus Solutions Group.

John Farrugia, Partner and Head of Technology at Cavendish said:

“We are delighted to have secured the sale of Avantia Group in a highly competitive process -we are confident that ECI will prove to be the ideal partner to help capitalise on its growth potential. Avantia has a unique proposition in the property insurance market and is entering an exciting stage of development.”

Phillip Walter, CEO of Avantia and HomeProtect said:

“We are delighted to be working with ECI to further grow HomeProtect and our other evolving brands. It is an exciting time for our business, our partners and our customers. HomeProtect already provides cost effective insurance for tens of thousands of customers, many of whom had found it difficult to find online cover elsewhere. This investment from ECI will allow us to grow faster organically as well as by acquisition, to offer more customers the peace of mind that HomeProtect delivers.”

David Walker, co-founder said:

“ECI have a proven track record investing in ambitious, high-growth companies. We are delighted to have them on board, as they support HomeProtect in the next stage of its expansion.”

He added:

“When looking for an advisor we decided we wanted someone who had specific experience in negotiating within the Private Equity space. It requires some additional skills to those needed in a trade sale and we were lucky to have found in Cavendish, a company that was able to help us.

Key Contacts

John Farrugia

CEO of finnCap Group Plc & Managing Partner of finnCap Cavendish

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