After acquiring an Italian insurance aggregator in April 2012 (Chiarezza.it), BlackFin Capital Partners rolls-out its build-up strategy by acquiring 100% of MisterAssur, a French insurance aggregator.
BlackFin Capital Partners, a private equity fund dedicated to financial services, acquired 100% of the French insurance aggregator MisterAssur, launched in February 2009.
MisterAssur provides a free online service through its website www.misterassur.com, which enables Internet users to compare a wide range of insurance products by price and features and then subscribe online or over the phone. MisterAssur works with a wide panel of insurers and brokers, and benefits from a strong presence in niche markets including motorbike, camping car and pet insurance. Furthermore, thanks to the flexibility of its platform, MisterAssur can rapidly develop new insurance products to enhance its offering to internet users.
MisterAssur’s highly customizable platform and its wide product offering differentiate the company from its competitors. The acquisition by BlackFin Capital Partners should allow MisterAssur to increase its marketing investments, create affiliation and white label partnerships and broaden the panel of insurers.
MisterAssur is the second insurance aggregator acquired by BlackFin, following the investment in Chiarezza in Italy, in April 2012 (www.chiarezza.it).
Paul Mizrahi, Managing Director of BlackFin, says: “BlackFin is very interested in the distribution and comparison of financial products over the Internet in Europe. In particular, we believe that aggregators will greatly increase their market share on the insurance market. Through this second acquisition in the insurance comparison business, we aim to consolidate our position and create synergies across complementary portfolio companies.”
This transaction is the sixth investment of BlackFin Capital Partners. It illustrates the ability of BlackFin to source proprietary transactions on high-growth segments of the financial services sector in Europe, and execute targeted add-on acquisitions for its portfolio companies.
BlackFin Capital Partners is a Private Equity firm taking influential stakes in financial sector SMEs (online finance, intermediation, asset management, insurance brokerage, service providers, etc.) across continental Europe.
BlackFin Capital Partners thus intends to sponsor successful management teams by bringing them growth capital and expertise to benefit from the consequences of an ongoing financial crisis and to help them make the most of all the opportunities this sector offers.
An independent firm, BlackFin Capital Partners is run by its four founders. Laurent Bouyoux, its Chairman, was a Partner with Aquiline Capital Partners and previously a co-founder, together with Eric May and Paul Mizrahi, of the ProCapital – Fortuneo group, a leading online broker and securities processing provider. They were joined by Bruno Rostain, CEO of Aviva France until September 2008, to set-up BlackFin Capital Partners.