The multi-millionaire owner of 'Beckingham Palace' has invested in an insurance data intelligence provider.
Neil Utley is the former chairman of Hastings Direct and helped to the revive the business after taking a major stake in a management buyout in 2009.
He is also well known for buying Rowneybury House, the property he purchased by David and Victoria Beckham for £11.5m in 2014.
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Mr Utley has now invested in Nottingham-based Percayso Inform in a move which saw the business raise £2.7m with the help of its existing venture capital investor, Manchester-headquartered Praetura Ventures.
The business has a 65-strong client base which includes Ageas, Covea, Direct Line, Markerstudy, Somerset Bridge and The AA.
Mr Utley said: "Rich and his team are building one of the most exciting businesses to have emerged in our industry in many years. 海角视频 insurance providers have been crying out for a flexible, scalable and easy to integrate data intelligence solution.
"I’m incredibly impressed with all that Percayso has achieved so far and look forward to helping the team take the business to the next level."
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Rich Tomlinson, managing director at Percayso, added: "We’re delighted to welcome Neil as an investor. He has a breadth of experience and knowledge to share from his 30 plus years of working in our industry at the highest level. In particular, his expertise in the motor insurance market will be invaluable in helping us to achieve our ambitions for Percayso Vehicle Intelligence.
"And we’re hugely proud that Praetura Ventures are continuing to support us. We’ve forged a fantastic relationship and in particular, I’d like to offer special thanks to Guy Weaver from their team who played a critical role in the Cazana acquisition.
"As we look ahead, we believe that Percayso Inform will play a key role in helping insurance providers of all shapes and sizes to get more out of the wealth of data available to enable them to write better business.
"The combined skills and experience that Neil and Praetura Ventures bring to our business will undoubtedly help us to accelerate our growth plans."
David Foreman, managing director at Praetura Ventures, said: "Our relationship with Percayso has gone from strength to strength over the past 16 months, and our team have been impressed with the progress that Percayso has made in such a short space of time.
"We will be continuing with our More Than Money support and couldn’t be more excited about the road ahead."
Peel Hunt advised Percayso on the fund raise and the legal team at Knights acted for Percayso. The Praetura Ventures team were advised by the legal team at Irwin Mitchell.