Bridger, a New Jersey-based tech upstart company, has purchased SCJ Insurance Services, a master general agency in Pleasanton, California. Started more than 40 years ago, SCJ has provided non-standard automobile insurance through over 2,000 agent locations throughout California.
Bridger has plans to develop smart contracts that leverage blockchain strategies to streamline the way insurance is transacted, mobile-based products that leverage telematics, and use-based programs to control premiums for policy holders.
Kimo Winterbottom, Bridger’s CEO, stated: “Bridger will deliver technology-driven personal insurance products to our independent agent partners that will enable them to offer a more efficient and seamless quote, bind and claims experience. In two years we hope to be offering personal and commercial, as well as homeowners products, through our proprietary Bridger transactional platform, and taking profitable market share by offering a user experience to the agent and consumer that is second to none.”
SCJ holds licenses in California, Texas, and Arizona, so Bridger plans to rapidly expand beyond California within the next year. The amount paid for the SCJ acquisition was not released, but the company feels the purchase primes them for success with an already existing $15-million book of business. Winterbottom said he plans to grow Bridger’s premium to between $25-million and $30-million by this time next year, with ambitions of writing $100-million within five years.
