WELSH insurtech incubator pH Innovate continues to expand its technical and marketing teams after winning new customers for its innovative insurance trading platform.
Success in winning new contracts, including one with an app offering an unique reverse auction insurance product, is leading to jobs growth at the Torfaen business.
The business, based at Mamhilad Park Estate, near Pontypool, has an unique approach to recruiting technical staff via its trainee programme. The scheme allows school leavers, who have an interest in technology but perhaps limited qualifications and experience, to start a career.
The burgeoning business recently recruited five new staff, four trainee developers and a marketing executive three of whom have now started. It has plans to recruit a further four trainee developers in the new year.
Stephen Peck, one of the owners of pH Innovate, said: “While businesses are in dire need of technical skills very few want to help develop these skills and instead chase the limited number of experienced or well-qualified applicants or they even end up outsourcing work abroad.
“In addition to the personal satisfaction in helping develop careers and building skills we find that we our employment recruitment programme gives us a competitive advantage in the market both through reduced cost of staff turnover and ability to provide a high level of technical skill to our customers.”
Fellow business owner David Harlow said: “The five new recruits all come from the local area.
“We’re extremely pleased with the calibre and quality of the local recruitment pool. One of our recruits has a degree in astrophysics so we’re pleased to be able to say that we now have our very own rocket scientist.”
Mr Harlow said: “All the recruits are from the local NP4 or NP44 areas. All of them have been struggling to get jobs in IT and development and have, until now, been working in fast food chains/warehouses.
“The recruits like the idea that they can learn and grow with the business.
“pH Innovate has won several contracts over the last quarter including with a young driver insurance start up, a comparison site for a large financial organisation and with industry first insurance app Honcho.”
“Honcho operate a reverse auction market place that notifies a panel of brokers/insurers when customers are looking for car insurance, providers then ‘bid’ for the customers business.
“Honcho has partnered with quotethemarket.co.uk, part of pH Innovate also based here in Torfaen, to supply multiple insurance providers to their platform allowing them to build a competitive panel of providers swiftly and economically.
“Forming a part of quotethemarket.co.uk’s next generation innovative comparison services, the ability to supply multiple brands in a single (API) feed frees up partners, such as Honcho, to focus on developing their front facing brand.”