RateBroker has big ambitions
One-stop shop for mortgage and other quotes set to grow
Start-up RateBroker is offering Kiwis a one-stop shop where they can easily compare quotes for the likes of mortgages, insurance and vehicle finance. The Auckland-based company was founded last year by Matthew Grant and Matt Smith after Grant said he was fed up with door knockers coming round every evening.
“No one likes door knockers trying to sell them something, and no one likes having to try and go through multiple companies to get a good deal,” Grant said.
“It was on this basis we created RateBroker. It’s essentially a one-stop shop with everything under the one umbrella.”
Customers could choose from the available services on the website before filling out a brief survey depending on which service it was for.
For example, a quote on life insurance might ask for age, gender, and whether the person smoked.
The site would then generate options from each of the different companies offering life insurance, along with quotes and general information on each firm.
In-house accredited staff could offer further advice if the customer needed it.
The business, which NZ Herald publisher NZME recently bought into, employs five staff with this expected to grow as the company expands.
The benefit of RateBroker was that it compared between six and eight companies for its services, Grant said.
It offered an unbiased approach,
No one likes door knockers trying to sell them something, and no one likes having to try and go through multiple companies to get a good deal. Matthew Grant, Rate Broker founder
because it didn’t make a difference to RateBroker which firm the customer used, he said.
In February last year after launching, the company brokered about $10 million worth of mortgages.
Last month a year on, it brokered more than $100 million.
“That’s bigger than the majority of brokers in the networks in New Zealand,” Grant said.
“We have another two or three months worth of adding in all the different verticals and then we look into Australia.”
Growth had all come from word of mouth, Grant said.
The company was currently seeing several hundred customers a month, and Grant said this was expected to grow as the business looked to add services such as power, cellphone and internet to its suite.
The company is planning to expand into Australia, before looking to launch in other countries.
Grant said he hoped to be in three or four countries by the end of the year.
“This was just me coming up with a solution to make the consumer feel more comfortable with wanting to actively look at products,” the Kiwi entrepreneur said.
“We’re expecting growth to be phenomenal this year, and we’ve got people coming to us so we’re not having to do too much going to them.”