A UK digital insurer behind esure and Sheilas' Wheels, now part of Ageas UK. ACQUIRED: by Ageas UK (2025).
esure is a UK personal-lines insurer selling car, home, travel and pet insurance. Its brands include esure and Sheilas' Wheels, which began in 2005 as car insurance for women and now covers men and women, plus home and travel. ACQUIRED: by Ageas UK (completed 29 September 2025). esure said it would initially operate as a separate business within Ageas UK and keep serving customers through its established brands, so we include it while the esure name is still in use.
esure was founded in 2000 by Sir Peter Wood, a pioneer of selling insurance by phone who had earlier helped start Direct Line. It began with 50 staff in Wallington, Surrey, and reached one million customers by its fifth birthday. We did not find a formal mission statement. The company's own history page says it passes savings from online processes on to "careful, responsible customers", and another profile says its strategy is to give "more customers with excellent service and great value products."
The company's history page says it has over 1,500 staff across the UK, and that its Glasgow office, called the Equinox, is its largest. We did not find a full list of other offices in the pages we read. esure was launched in 2001 as a joint venture between Sir Peter Wood and Halifax plc, listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2013 as esureGroup plc, and was bought by Bain Capital funds in 2018. GoCompare joined the same group in 2015 and runs separately.
esure's culture is described in terms of its creative marketing, including the pink Sheilas' Wheels brand, and its expansion in 2011 into the broker market for drivers who do not fit standard criteria. The history page does not set out a values statement. After the Ageas deal, leadership changed, with Peter Martin-Simon becoming esure's chief executive reporting to Ageas UK's chief executive Ant Middle, who called the completion "a defining chapter" for Ageas UK.
esure sells mainly through price comparison websites and manages over 2.1 million policies (Insurance Business, September 2025). Because it sells mostly online, its roles include digital marketing, data and pricing, claims handling, customer service by phone and online, technology development, and finance. The company is in a period of integration with Ageas UK, so ask where roles will be based and which brand you would work under.
Website: www.esure.com
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