(Image source: One Inc homepage.)
One Inc (Folsom, Calif.), a digital payments solutions vendor focused exclusively on the insurance industry, today announced that it has completed a recapitalization led by Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based growth-oriented private equity firm. The recapitalization represents a change of ownership and a focus on One Inc’s payment solutions after a period of venturing into a broader insurance platform offering. As a result of the acquisition, Matt Vettel, a managing partner at Great Hill, and Nick Cayer will join the One Inc’s board of directors.
Christopher W. Ewing, CEO, One Inc.
One Inc’s chief differentiators are its insurance-specific reporting and reconciliation, and the vendor’s solutions’ ability to handle both inbound and outbound payments. The firm claims that it has seen a growth of payments volume on its solutions at an average rate of 77 percent year-over-year. The company says its platform allows insurance companies to maintain a frictionless payment experience across all stakeholder groups, including policyholders, vendors, agents, and service providers. “With seamless integration into existing legacy and modern core systems, the One Inc Digital Payments Platform helps insurers increase customer retention while reducing costs, complexity, and the burdens of compliance and security,” a One Inc statement says.
The One Inc Digital Payments Platform evolved out of One Inc’s broader venture into insurance platform offerings including core systems (policy, billing, claims), other insurance systems (e.g., agency management and rating), and ancillary systems such as CRM, document management, business intelligence and data warehousing. However, for the past several years, One Inc has put most of its resources into the flagship payments business.
“Great Hill’s investment allows us to focus on our digital payments strategy,” comments Christopher Ewing, founder and CEO, One Inc. “Great Hill has been focused on SaaS and payments, and we’re a little of both, so it’s a good strategic fit.”
Karlyn Carnahan, Head, The Americas, Property Casualty, Celent.
Great Hill’s portfolio of payment processing and software companies includes MineralTree, Vanco, Paytronix, Network Merchants, Inc., BlueSnap, and AffiniPay. Prior payment company investments include Accelerated Payment Technologies, Connexeo, Custom House, Vigo Remittance, and BillMatrix.
“This is clearly a place that GH is looking to leverage the expertise of one of their acquisitions against some of their others, something they expect to be a big money-maker across all industries,” comments Karlyn Carnahan Head of The Americas for research and advisory firm Celent’s (Boston) Property Casualty insurance practice. “The firm recognizes that this will generate strong returns in the insurance industry, knowing that insurance companies are increasingly looking to outsource this function.
Nicholas R. Cayer
Partner, Great Hill Partners.
The acquisition also simplifies One Inc’s board, going from seven members—including Ewing and previous investors—to only three: Ewing and Great Hill partners Vettel and Cayer. “Nick and Matt have extensive experience growing payments and SaaS companies,” says Ewing. “They have brought a lot of that experience to our strategic discussions, and it’s been fantastic.”
“Great Hill is bringing a cross-industry payment background to our board with expertise to help us invest in areas of the payments business that we need to grow, such as sales and marketing,” Ewing adds. “We’ll also use some of the new funds to grow our product management team to focus on insurance-specific features and functions.”
“The insurance industry is going through a transformation as both insurance companies and policyholders seek digital platforms that allow for real-time engagement,” comments Great Hill’s Cayer. “One Inc’s focus on building the best digital platform has led to tremendous growth, and we are excited to work with Chris and his entire team and to bring our extensive payments and software experience to bear in supporting them through the next phase of expansion.”
Doubled Volume of Payment Processing
Matt Vettel, Managing Partner, Great Hill Partners.
Ewing reports that One Inc’s focus exclusively on payments has been followed by a string of successes, including over 30 deals signed during the last 21 months. “We’ve more than doubled our volume of payment processing every year for five years and we are on track to do the same in 2020,” he says “We’re now processing billions of dollars. The fact that we’re now the only scaled insurance payment vendor who does both inbound and outbound is allowing us to win more than our fair share of digital payments opportunities.”
Ewing reports that One Inc’s ClaimsPay, which the vendor describes as a solution that allows insurance companies to pay and close claims instantly, has been contributing to its success since its launch in 2017. “ClaimsPay promotes a better user experience, expedites the time to close, and reduces fraud, in addition to offering the payment methods and channels preferred by policyholders and service providers,” a One Inc statement says.
Ewing notes that the insurance industry continues to pay something in the range of 90 percent of claims via paper check. “I think in the next three to five years, that will reverse to where 90 percent of payments are digital,” he says. “There is great demand for digital claims payments, and ClaimsPay has been very well received. Our customers love it, and we’re closing many deals because of that, along with our whole suite of payment products.”