Durham insurtech app launches £700k crowdfunding round with Crowdcube

Insurtech startup honcho has launched its second equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube as it prepares for further growth.

The Durham-based company is gearing up for the creation of new marketplaces for van and learner drivers among its customers, in early 2020.

Since launching in August 2019, honcho has added over 10,000 users to its reverse auction marketplace platform, where consumers using honcho’s iOS and Android apps ask car insurance providers to bid against each other in real time to win business.

honcho raised £830k in its last funding round on Crowdcube in early 2018, beating its target by almost 30 per cent.

Since then, it has gone on to raise a further £970k from the Edinburgh-headquartered venture capital firm Maven Capital Partners and other private investors.

In this investment round, honcho aims to raise £700k from the crowd as investors are invited to become shareholders in the fintech business.

honcho’s CEO, Gavin Sewell, said: “We’re huge fans of crowdfunding and are very excited to be back on Crowdcube as we prepare to enter the next phase of our growth journey.

“We raised almost 30 per cent over our target amount in our last crowd raise and we’ve already received significant interest in this round from existing investors as well as a whole new swathe of potential investors, including many honcho customers.

“We’re pretty dismayed by the ways in which some major price comparison websites treat both consumers and insurance providers, with limited transparency, some questionable tactics and an overall lack of consumer-focus at the expense of making money.

“It is not acceptable, and the time for change is now. The honcho insurance revolution is here and we’re looking forward to welcoming crowd investors joining us on our journey as we transform the insurance market for everyone.”

honcho’s crowdfunding campaign is now open and is due to remain so until next month.