We’ve just closed a £5m investment as part of our Series A round, led by Octopus Ventures. Reflecting on our journey so far makes us pretty proud. This investment will help us build on that.
It’s fair to say we’ve had a busy end to 2018, and an even bigger start to 2019. We launched to the public last July, and in just over half a year we’ve welcomed thousands of customers, been given a 5 Star rating for our policy coverage by Defaqto and MoneyFacts, we’ve won awards, we became available on uSwitch and MoneySuperMarket, and had a whole load of great pieces of press written about us, educating drivers about the benefits of pay-by-mile car insurance. And we just hit a million miles covered by our policies.
We’re also now rated 9.7 on Trustpilot, which currently ranks us as the 22nd best insurance company in the UK (out of 383) – but we know we can do better.
This new £5m of funding is a huge part in building on this success. This Series A round, led by Octopus Ventures, is all part of making us a bigger and better company. It will help us improve the quality of our current product and service, and ensure we can reach millions more low mileage drivers out there that may not have already discovered the fairer way to pay. We’re in good company being backed by Octopus Ventures, as we now sit alongside big names like Zoopla and Secret Escapes in their portfolio, as well as insurance providers we admire such as BoughtByMany.
We’re also humbled to receive more investment and support from all of our existing investors: JamJar Investments (the fund created by the founders of innocent drinks), InMotion Ventures (the investment arm of Jaguar Land Rover) and our original investors, Insurtech Gateway. It’s a vote of confidence we’re honoured to receive, and we’re happy they’re all continuing on the journey with us.
So what exactly will we be spending this investment on?
1. Expanding our market-leading customer support team.
Those of you who’ve spoken with our member support team will know how helpful they are already.
Over the next few months, we’ll be bringing in more friendly faces and skilful problem solvers, investing in more training for the existing team and further automating the tools they use behind the scenes to help them offer an even higher level of service.
2. Building on the existing app and launching more services.
As well as improving the features of our existing pay-by-mile policy and its accompanying smartphone app, we’ve been working on rolling out more innovative new car insurance products.
There’s a lot of work to be done from a technical perspective, so we’re expanding our development team to make this happen. Work will be going into it from an insurance point of view too, to ensure we can bring smarter and fairer pricing to even more drivers.
3. Developing our in-app claims handling.
Having high quality coverage as part of our policy is only useful if members can make the most of it if the worst does happen.
We’ll be beginning the design, testing and development of an in-app claims reporting tool shortly, so that claims can be resolved quickly and smoothly. Watch this space on that one.
4. Some secret stuff we can’t talk about. Yet.
We’re working on some really exciting projects to help support the changing mobility space. Insurance must evolve keep up with the different ways people now move around. We can’t wait to share some new developments we’ve been working on, but our lips must remain sealed on that one for the time being…
“We’re using tech to stop people being overcharged for their car insurance”
Those who don’t drive as much are being treated unfairly. They’re charged more to subsidise the insurance of higher mileage drivers. We’re using tech to stop people being overcharged for their car insurance. At the same time we also want to change the way the industry interacts with its customers. It hasn’t got the best reputation!
We will continue to place customer experience at the heart of this new wave of car insurance, improving the tech, the level of service and expanding our team. We’re proud to be putting customers first, only charging for miles driven and making car ownership more affordable. And reaching our millionth mile shows this approach is something UK drivers really want.
Malcolm Ferguson, Principal & Early Stage Investor at Octopus Ventures:
“Teaming up with By Miles was a no brainer for us; they have already had a huge impact on the car insurance market with their customer-first approach.”
“The car insurance industry is known for being complex and difficult to navigate. By Miles is changing this perception by offering a fair pricing model based on use, driving savings across the board. They are set to change the car insurance market for good and we want to help them do just that.
“We are looking forward to supporting By Miles as they continue to grow from strength to strength.”
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