Insurance comparison marketplace QuoteWizard is having a good start to the year.
The company announced Thursday that it has acquired California-based Bantam Connect, a call transfer company specializing in insurance leads. Privately held QuoteWizard also disclosed a record profit of $12 million in 2017. The Seattle-based company said its total revenue for the year was $80 million, also a record high since it was founded in 2006.
QuoteWizard has absorbed Bantam’s management team and all 30 of its employees and said it will allow the company to continue operations as normal under the QuoteWizard brand. The companies did not release financial details of the deal, but said it included both cash and equity.
“We’re excited to incorporate Bantam’s capabilities and team into our company,” Scott Peyree, QuoteWizard founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Combining Bantam’s Call Products with our Lead and Click offerings, we are now the only company in our industry offering a full suite of top quality, end-to-end customer acquisition solutions to our clients… We plan on leveraging Bantam’s industry-leading technology to reach our goal of being the leading online destination for Americans looking for insurance.”
The news is notable given that QuoteWizard was forced to lay off 30 percent of its workforce in late 2016 as the insurance markets shifted. Peyree told GeekWire at the time that the company couldn’t maintain its growth in the insurance environment and that it would look to diversify its offerings.
It seems that plan is working out — Bantam’s addition and the acquisition of insurance shopping site RateElert in October have expanded QuoteWizard’s products into broader offerings for insurance providers and shoppers.
QuoteWizard has been family owned and self-funded since its founding in 2006, and has at times been among the fastest growing companies in Washington state. It opened a Denver office in May of 2016.
