About Us
We’re changing the way people buy insurance
Let’s be honest, there’s a bit of a stigma attached to insurance isn’t there? Even in today’s lightning fast, digital world, insurance is often associated with lengthy, over-complicated forms, jargon and fat premiums. We do it differently.
Our ethos is all about making insurance easy-to-buy, simple-to-understand, jargon-free and excellent value. We set out to do things differently way back in 1998 when we launched our first insurance product, The Golfers Club. Now over 20 years later, we have an ever-growing and award-winning portfolio of specialist insurance products, look after over 350,000 policyholders and see more than 3 million visitors come to our websites every year. Our amazing growth relies on our fantastic team based in Manchester. We work hard every day to live and breathe our fresh approach to insurance to make sure we give our policyholders our very best, and that’s led us to become one of the leading specialist insurance intermediaries in the UK.
Protecting your passions
From providing insurance for your caravan, boat or bike to protecting your livelihood as a Personal Trainer, Musician or small business entrepreneur, our specialist insurance gives you the support you need should the worst happen, leaving you to enjoy doing what you love.
Our journey so far...
1998
2004
We saw an opportunity to offer a mass market golf insurance proposition, that offered a variety of insurance packages to suit all budgets and needs of golfers. We launched our specialist golf insurance product, Golf Care, which we are proud to say is now the largest provider of golf insurance in the UK with over 95,000 policyholders.
2009
We saw a gap in the market for a comprehensive specialist sports insurance product for over 200 different sports, with a variety of cover options that could be tailored to the specific needs of sports people. So, we launched Insure4Sport. We designed our insurance to protect Personal Trainers, Coaches, Players and Teams, and as a result have since earned the status as the UK’s most trusted sports insurance specialist.
In 2009 we reached 100,000 policyholders.
2012
Following the successful launch of our specialist golf insurance product, Golf Care, we appointed 3-time Ryder Cup Champion Bernard Gallacher OBE as our Golf Care brand ambassador. Like us, Bernard is passionate about protecting golfers on the course and helps to advise golfers how to stay safe, together with providing expert golfing tips and insight into all the major tournaments throughout the year.
2013
Following the cycling boom after the 2012 Olympics in London, we wanted to offer customers an unpackaged, affordable cycling insurance product in an established market. Our specialist cycling insurance product, Cycleplan, was born to protect riders who had a real passion for cycling. The market continues to thrive and we will continue to evolve with it and adapt to meet the needs of all types of cyclists.
2014
In the shooting market, there was a time that if you wanted to buy shooting insurance, you had to join a shooting association. So we decided to launch our standalone specialist insurance product, Gunplan, to provide an alternative way to buy insurance for various types of shooting, rather than having to join an association.
2015
The music industry is extremely diverse, with musicians who have very specific insurance needs for the way they play or perform or teach. Our aim was to provide all musicians with an unpackaged and affordable insurance product that would cater exactly for their needs, so we launched our specialist music insurance product, Insure4Music. Our insurance provides protection for singers, bands and DJs plus orchestras, choirs and music teachers.
Two years after the launch of our specialist cycling insurance product, Cycleplan, we appointed World, Commonwealth and National Champion and Olympic Silver Medallist, Lizzie Deignan (nee Armitstead), as our Cycleplan brand ambassador. Having had a few near misses herself, Lizzie is passionate about cycling safety and the need for insurance.
In 2015 we reached 150,000 policyholders.
2016
During this year, we also launched our specialist boat insurance product, Insure4Boats. Our aim was to offer boat owners a better way of buying boat insurance online. Most traditional boat insurance providers required people to fill in lengthy forms and the process was long-winded and unnecessarily complicated. We made it simple with our easy online quote and buy process.
We signed a 3-year agreement capacity deal with RSA.
2017
Having successfully grown a portfolio of specialist insurance products since 1998, we launched the Ripe brand to bring all our products together under the Ripe umbrella. To date, we’ve shown exponential growth and are the trailblazing insurance provider behind many of the UK’s most successful niche brands. We launched two new Ripe insurance products under the Ripe ethos of making insurance super-fast, easy to buy, jargon free and excellent value.
Firstly, Ripe Valuables which not only enables people to protect their precious valuables easily by getting a quote in just six clicks, but also helps them to create tailor-made insurance policies.
Ripe Small Business was also launched, giving different types of businesses, from dog walkers and builders to accountants and carpenters, the opportunity to tailor their insurance to suit their needs.
2018
Hot on the heels of our first two Ripe insurance products, we then went on to launch Ripe Photography. This new insurance product distinguishes itself from the competition with a build-your-own model where photographers only pay for the cover they need. This strategy set us apart from most other insurers in this sector who offer pre-bundled packages.
In 2018 we reached 200,000 policyholders.
Ripe were awarded the Ones to Watch 2018 Sunday Times Tech Track award.
2019
This year saw us enter the caravan insurance market. We could see that this was historically a traditional market, and desperately in need of innovation and a more modern, technology-based insurance product for today’s savvy customers. So, we proudly launched our hugely successful Ripe Caravans insurance product to meet the needs of touring caravan or holiday home-owners.
During this year, we developed and launched our new in-house CRM platform, Juice, using latest cloud based and API technology.
Ripe signs new 5-year capacity deal with Aviva.
Ripe were awarded Personal Lines Broker of the Year 2019 by Insurance Times.
2020
Due to the huge surge in popularity of e-scooters, we launched our e-scooter insurance product under our Cycleplan brand and were one of the first insurance providers to market. At the time of launch, e-scooters were only allowed to be used on private land, but with a change in government legislation on the horizon, the future for this product is very positive.
We launched The Ripe Guarantee, to let customers know what to expect when they buy insurance with us – great cover, exceptional service at the right price. We wanted to make it clear to our customers that we will take care of them every step of the way.
Ripe were awarded Personal Lines Broker of the Year 2020 by Insurance Times for the second year running.
Ripe were awarded Best Specialist Insurance Provider by the Insurance Choice Awards.
