The days of trawling the internet in search of the best insurance quote could be nearing their end, or at least that's what Mike Simpson passionately hopes.
Tired of entering his personal details into tens of websites to get individual quotes he thought it would make so much more sense to enter them into one site which lets a number of insurance companies access them and then make their bids.
Six years later, Mike's company, Bid4mybusiness, has now completed a trial run, got a number of the big insurance players on board and is now looking to roll the concept out on a larger scale.
"This way the insurance people will go to the consumer at the right time every year," he says. "The insurers are able to just access those opportunities that meet their underwriting criteria so it is efficient all round. It allows them to save a lot in reaching the promiscuous end of the market."
Current efforts at reaching the 30 per cent of consumers who actively shop around each year are expensive - typically costing between £75 and £100 per customer - which of course pushes up the price of the final premium.
By minimising the cost through Bid4mybusiness, which charges the insurance companies around £30 per successfully won customer, insurers can offer cheaper premiums.
Mike is now looking to the next stage - spreading word of its service among consumers.
"We have now proved the model works, having put 6000 consumers through it.
The real challenge is now getting it known to the masses."
Mike believes the consumer market place has already reached saturation point in its advertising, so has planned a different route to reach critical mass - the 100,000 customer point where the insurance market will have enough fodder for their products.
He plans to deal with large employer groups and trade unions initially, presenting Bid4mybusiness as an added-value benefit. Mike now intends to raise a second round of funding to really build momentum with a £500,000 to £1 million injection. That would allow him and his team to go full-time on the company.
"This was born out of a personal frustration, having divulged information about myself and then been deluged with emails, snail male and calls.
"It hasn't all been smooth, there have been challenges but we feel we have now found a place with insurers and this is going to work."
