2021 has been a year for the books at Zego
As 2021 draws to a close, we’ve taken time to reflect on some of the key achievements that have taken place at Zego over the last 12 months. These include our Series C round of fundraising, exciting partnerships and the exciting awards we’ve won along the way!
Introducing UK’s first InsurTech Unicorn
Early this year, we raised $150 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion for our Series C round of fundraising, making us the UK’s first insurtech unicorn.
Leading our C round was DST Global, as well as other new backers including General Catalyst, whose founder and MD, Joel Cutler, joins Zego’s board.
All of our existing investors followed on as well, including Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus, Target Global, Balderton Capital and Latitude.
This investment round has been vital for funding our rapid expansion across Europe and beyond, in addition to, enabling us to continue our tech development and double our workforce by the end of 2021.
We launched Zego’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging campaign…
Throughout 2021, we’ve shared the stories of a number of Zegons, giving an insight into the lives and stories of the people behind our insurance products. We wanted to ensure that we showcased diversity in all guises, and extended beyond gender, orientation and race, to include stories on neurodiversity, diversity of thought and experience, and parenting too.
At Zego, we are dedicated to creating a healthy, safe and engaging culture, which places the utmost importance on the principles of diversity, inclusion and belonging.
We introduced a brand new flat-rate insurance product for fleet customers
We launched our brand new flat rate insurance policy for fleet and private hire companies.
This product caters specifically to companies with consistently high demand, driving high mileage or simply wanting to pay a fixed premium each month. This is a further expansion of our current options for fleet businesses here at Zego and much like our usage-based policy, it is powered by the ABAX solution.
Unlike our usage-based policy, which allows fleet companies to only pay for insurance when they need it, our flat rate policy is a fixed premium for the duration of cover.
We made some new partnerships along the way…
With support from reinsurance company Swiss Re, we teamed up with bp, to provide professional insurance for bp’s electric vehicle trial in London, called “bp EV Pro.”
The package was designed specifically for ride-hail drivers in London, with the aim of making it more appealing and convenient for drivers to opt to lease an electric vehicle (EV), while significantly reducing emissions.
As part of the bp EV Pro package, which includes other benefits such as access to bp’s charging network, Zego’s professional insurance will be provided to ride-hail drivers as soon as the car is delivered.
We also partnered with ultra-flexible leasing company SOGO to insure its rapidly growing fleet of cars and vans.
Brokered through McCarron Coates, Zego now provides flexible, usage-based insurance to SOGO’s fleet of vehicles, covering drivers on a range of cars and vans from Renault EVs to Audi A6s, with plans to support SOGO’s rapidly increasing fleet of vehicles which is expected to reach over 20,000 vehicles by the end of 2025.
The partnership allows SOGO to offer pay-by-the-mile insurance to its customers as part of their monthly leasing subscription while absorbing the cost of insurance premiums on behalf of drivers.
We conducted some research on consumer delivery habits and made some interesting findings
We surveyed 2,000 adults in the UK to establish the nation’s delivery trends and sentiment towards the brave self-employed delivery drivers, and fleets, who have kept the nation fed, entertained, and supported with deliveries throughout the pandemic.
The most common item being dropped off by the UK’s fleets of delivery drivers are clothes, with more than half (55 per cent) having an item of clothing posted to consumers over the past 12 months - closely followed by gifts (48 per cent), takeaways (45 per cent), groceries (44 per cent) and books (38 per cent).
Two thirds (66 per cent) of the people we surveyed said they had increased their deliveries since the onset of the COVID pandemic, with them typically receiving seven extra deliveries per month. This trend looks set to stay with just under a third (31 per cent) of UK adults keen to keep ordering more deliveries in the future.
And 81 per cent really appreciate the role fleets of delivery drivers play in modern society, with 61% thinking workers in this crucial sector deserve access to flexible and affordable insurance to help make their jobs more cost-effective and save them money.
Read the full story here.
We received some important awards and accolades
2021 was a great year for Zego in terms of recognition for the work everyone does every day.
Most notably, Zego was named the 11th fastest-growing tech company in the UK at The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 ceremony. The award is one of the UK’s foremost technology awards programmes, celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship.
Zego also won the Covid-19 Business Hero Award at the Go Tech Awards 2021.
This award recognises our team's outstanding contribution over the course of the pandemic, especially our efforts going the extra mile for customers and being a force for good in the world during a very tough year.
This continues of success from 2020, where Zego won the Tech Company of the Year award for medium-sized businesses, at the UK Business Tech Awards
Individually, it was also a great year for Zego too!
Our Co-Founders, Sten Saar and Harry Frank were featured in The Financial Times annual UK’s top 100 entrepreneurs list - which celebrates entrepreneurs who have built large businesses, together with others that have achieved great valuations on the promise of future success.
In addition to that, our Chief Technology Officer, Vicky Wills won a Green Cube for Excellence in Technology at the Digital Masters Awards.
The award offers an opportunity for companies to nominate extraordinary, European-based executives from within their own organisation who have demonstrated excellence in their field over the past year.
We’re supporting our Zegons with brand new policies
2021 was also a year of continuing our work on inclusive work environments and belonging by rolling out brand some new policies.
Our trans & non-binary policy sets out supportive measures for transitioning Zegons and guidance on appropriate conduct and language in the workplace. Inclusive is a pledge to provide unisex facilities, allowing for freedom to express oneself through no dress code, and unlimited therapy sessions for at least six months.
We will also offer paid leave to support any member of staff pursuing medical transition and are committed to supporting Zegons to define their own personalised internal transition plan to support their journey at a pace and style to suit them.
This year, we also introduced paid leave for employees who experience a pregnancy loss.
The policy, which covers both miscarriage and abortion, is open to Zegons who have suffered the loss, as well as partners and surrogate mothers; providing two weeks’ paid leave to ensure that individuals feel ready to return to work and additional paid leave for any subsequent medical care appointments is also included.
We had a lot of fun along the way with some great internal and external events
2021 was a year of great internal and external events, engaging both Zegons and Zego’s most loyal customers, partners and brokers. Here are some of the big hitters from throughout the year.
We celebrated our Series C round of fundraising, valuation of $1.1 billion and UK Insuretech unicorn status by hosting a live-streamed unicorn-inspired announcement, back in March. Lead by our CEO, Sten Saar, with help from a number of Zegon we broadcast this event to the entire company to celebrate the great news and Zego’s continued growth, recognition and success.
Zego’s Broker Forum Events were a great way of touching base with some of our key brokers as well as sharing Zego’s product launches and updates, vision for 2021 and beyond, and sharing our expert industry trends insight with everyone in attendance.
This summer, and after so many months apart, we were fortunate enough to celebrate Zego's 5th birthday party together in style in London. Not only was this a celebration of how far Zego has come, but it was also a massive "thank you" to the most important part of the business: our people!
Fleet and Mobility Live Expo in Birmingham was a brilliant opportunity to discuss the launch of Zego's new flat-rate policy, introduced to cater specifically for companies with consistent high demand or driving high mileage every month and is a further expansion of our current options for fleet businesses.
And finally, to wrap up 2021 we celebrated the year's successes with some of our investors, partners, brokers and friends at Zego's annual shareholder event. The evening was spent reflecting on Zego's incredible journey so far, whilst gazing into 2022 and beyond with excitement for the road ahead.
What’s up next year?
Without lifting the lid on too much, there is a lot to be excited about in 2022 at Zego. We will be continuing to grow our team, scale our cache of products and further establish our name and brand in Europe and beyond.