☰

Being an entrepreneur is probably the worst way to make money…you have to be in it for the adventure!

This ‘insurtech’ start-up uses technology to deliver online insurance and detect fraud. It offers insurance policies to renters and people in house shares, as well as homeowners, and has amassed more than 100,000 customers since it was founded in 2016 by Jimmy Williams and Greg Smyth. This May, the London-based company secured £16.5m in a funding round led by North American investor Intact Ventures and the Ingka Group (the world’s largest IKEA franchise), bringing total funds raised to £32m.

Disclaimer: The statements made by our interviewees are an expression of their own views and opinions and in no way reflect FEBE Ventures’ views or opinions, nor are such views or opinions endorsed or supported by us.

More Founder Stories

The quiet tech entrepreneur who’s modestly building a half-billion-pound empire

It’s not about having gleaming offices, hiring tons of staff and shouting about how successful you are. These can be the trappings of ego-trippers. Effective entrepreneurship is more often about coming up with an idea, proving the concept as cheaply as possible, and scaling it as quickly as possible.

Great culture is about hiring great people. Nothing else.

Dock & Bay was created in 2015 to reinvent the beach towel. The company’s lightweight towels are made from recycled plastic bottles and are quick drying, compact and sand repellent. In 2017, co-founders Andy Jefferies and Ben Muller appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, securing a £75,000 investment from Deborah Meaden…

‘I’ve raised millions but money doesn’t make you happy’

In 2010, James Hyde and James Strachan built a cloud based e-commerce fulfilment platform in the corner of a Cambridgeshire warehouse. They now operate fulfilment centres across the UK, the Netherlands and America. Last year, it added 92 recruits and expanded operations with a new 200,000 sq ft fulfilment centre in Northampton. The business continues to build on its proprietary technology platform, enabling retailers a single global view of operations.

The story of how one business has grabbed the gin sector by the juniper berries and given it an almighty shake

Any discerning gin drinkers will already know the compelling Warner’s Gin story. Corporate behemoths would pay a fortune to have that amount of authenticity. But the funny thing about authenticity is this: it can’t be bought or copied. If you try to do either of those things, guess what? It disappears faster than your Friday night G’n’T…

From dressing up as Santa to raising $50M and hitting the Deloitte Fast 50

Aged 10, Christer Holloman launched a Rent-a-Santa business in his hometown. He’d dress up as the Big Guy each Christmas Eve and, as per Swedish tradition, hand out gifts to excited kids. “I’ve got a picture of me aged 13 counting out my earnings on Christmas Eve, I guess I was destined to become an entrepreneur.” 30 years on, Christer is living out that destiny…

“How we turned our small garage business into one of the fastest growing companies in Europe”

Velocity Commerce has rapidly grown from a small start up run from a home garage to being recognised as the 92nd fastest growing company in Europe in the Financial Times 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies. Read PJ & Eddie’s story to learn just how they’ve done it….