Bridges and Magenta sell Halo to Cover-More

The deal represents a return multiple of more than 10x for Bridges, a source close to the situation told unquote".

Since the time of the VCs' initial investment, the company has expanded beyond its initial focus on rental insurance to include guaranteed asset protection (GAP) insurance. GAP insurance provides coverage for the difference in value between a car's original price and its current market valuation. It is provided separately to standard car insurance policies, which base their payouts on vehicles' current market rates.

Over the past eight years the company has expanded internationally into the US, Dutch, German, French and Spanish markets. The VCs also introduced a board of directors chaired by former SimplySwitch director Alistair Tillen.

According to a statement issued by the vendors, Halo has grown its EBITDA at a compound annual rate of 145% over the last four years. The statement also said the sales process attracted interest from a second prospective trade buyer beside Cover-More.

The sale of Halo marks the final major realisation from Bridges' maiden fund, unquote" understands.

Previous funding
Bridges and Magenta supported the launch of Halo in 2009. They both then provided the business with around £1m each in March 2010, according to unquote" data.

Company
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in London, Halo is an online car insurance aggregation business. It operates through the rental insurance platforms ICarHireInsurance.com in the UK, leihwagenversicherung.de in Germany, Aseguramicochedealquiler.es in Spain, Huurautoverzekering.com in the Netherlands, Assurancelocationvoiture.fr in France and Insuremyrentalcar.com in the US; as well as GAP insurance provider InsureTheGap.com.

Halo's platforms are available in six different languages and the business sold 325,000 policies in 2016. According to publicly available documents, the company generated a turnover of £3.1m in 2015, with profits on ordinary activities before taxation of £357,000.

People
Bridges Fund Management – Alison Price (investment manager).
Magenta Partners – Tom Matthews (partner).
Halo Insurance Services – Ernesto Suarez (founder, CEO).

Advisers
Vendor – Cavendish Corporate Finance (corporate finance); Osborne Clarke (legal).

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• Topics
• Financials
• UK / Ireland
• Exits
• United Kingdom
• Bridges Ventures
• Trade sale