Hood Group

The company

Hood Group (www.hoodgroup.co.uk) offers personal lines insurance policies through white-label solutions for consumer brands and via its own direct-to-market channel, along with outsourced services to corporate clients. Hood Group has relationships with some of the UK’s most prominent underwriters including AXA, ERGO, and Bspoke. 

It pairs third-party brands and insurers within its network using its single customer contact centre to support a 520,000-strong customer base with a top quartile Net Promoter Score and strong customer satisfaction ratings.

Our investment rationale

Hood Group is well-established and has an experienced management team. The team has relentlessly innovated as the insurance market has evolved and in response to covid. As a result, the company has now successfully positioned itself as a value-added, digitally-enabled, niche provider of insurance solutions, utilising different distribution channels, alongside provision of outsourced services. 

Its B2B and D2C offering differentiates it and it has also invested in its own technology. Coupled with Hood Group’s network of blue-chip customers, quality insurers and professional connections, we believe Hood Group occupies a unique space in a fragmented market.

Our sector experience and value-add

We have good experience in the insurance sector. In 2017 we completed a £7.5m MBO and growth investment in insurtech Tempcover. During our ownership, EBITDA grew substantially and headcount more than doubled. Just four and a half years later in 2021 we exited the investment via a sale to RVU (owner of confused.com) for a gross return that was materially in excess of 5x.

There are parallels between Tempcover and Hood Group’s business models and a number of learnings from our experience with Tempcover which can be ported across to Hood Group. Our connections within the insurance industry will also help unlock new opportunities to support delivery of the planned growth.

The transaction

The transaction was sourced through our proprietary private investor network. It was structured to buy out a family trust and back the incumbent management team, while providing capital to deliver an accelerated growth strategy.