Zego confirms redundancies

A Zego spokesperson commented: “On Monday 11 July, Zego’s CEO, Sten Saar, announced to all employees that regrettably, the company could no longer avoid headcount reductions, and that sadly this meant 17% of the team across various departments would be impacted. This decision was not taken lightly, and largely came as a result of increased economic headwinds experienced since the beginning of this year.

“These headwinds have meant that while Zego continues to grow strongly in 2022, it has also experienced an increase in costs, leading to course adjustments in order to adapt to this new economic environment.”

Teams

Insurance Age understands that these redundancies mainly impact B2C staff and includes people working in the engineering, product and research departments.

It follows a reported 5% reduction in headcount in April this year due to a restructure.

The spokesperson continued: “Zego has endeavoured to make the process fair, thoughtful and respectful, and is now actively supporting these employees who have contributed so much, as they transition out of the business. Meanwhile, the company has refocused its priorities for H2 and beyond - maintaining a laser-focus on serving its customers better than ever before.”

Accountable

Saar said: “We wouldn’t be going ahead with this if we hadn’t already explored other options. We similarly wouldn’t have chosen this path if I didn’t believe it was the right thing to do, but as Zego’s CEO, I have to hold myself accountable for this decision.

“This has been one of the most difficult times for all of us at Zego, and so we are fully committed to supporting the team in the coming days. Looking further ahead, we will be directing all of our energy towards our refocused priorities; towards building on our growth this year to date; and towards powering opportunities for our customers well into the future.”

Motor specialist Zego became the UK’s first UK insurtech ‘unicorn’ in 2021 when it was valued at $1bn.

The business is focused on commercial motor and secured a Gibraltarian insurance license in 2019. At the time it stated it would use the Gibraltar license for around 20% of its business while continuing to work with a panel of insurers.

Most recently, it announced a partnership with Aviva on fleet and haulage policies. In 2020 it bought telematics firm Driveit.

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