Durham insurance tech company Honcho is set to be liquidated following the appointment of a London restructuring company.
Business Live revealed last week how the Aykley Heads based business had ceased trading, announcing the closure on its website while citing rising costs and a highly competitive marketplace. The company, incorporated in 2014 by Gavin Sewell and Frank Speight, set out to disrupt the market through its app and website, operating a reverse auction system where insurers could bid for drivers’ insurance contracts, with an app that allows insurers to bid for consumers’ business and compete with each other to offer the best value package in real time.
Honcho Markets Ltd, which traded as Honcho, put growth plans into action with more than £3m in investment through a range of sources, including grant funding, angel investors, crowdfunding and venture capital investments. Restructuring and recovery specialists Andy Pear and Milan Vuceljic at Moorfields Advisory Ltd were appointed joint liquidators of Honcho Markets Limited on September 30 2022.
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The pair said that the company had built a significant reputation in the market but had unfortunately run into difficulties earlier this year due to the competitiveness in the marketplace. Prior to the joint liquidators’ appointment, the company had been working hard trying to achieve a sale, investment or solvent solution for some time, but this proved to be unsuccessful. The company’s main asset is the technology developed for customers to use a reverse-auction marketplace, along with a database of over 30,000 users.
The liquidators are now marketing the company’s assets for sale, for the benefit of creditors and said they are are open to receiving offers. Andy Pear, partner at Moorfields, said: “It’s unfortunate not to have found a buyer for the business but the company has some great technology which it has heavily invested in, so would be valuable to the right buyer.”
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