Nine months after Active Assurances teamed up with Activa Capital and Bpifrance, the specialist digital insurance broker has announced a merger with AFI Assurances, a specialist health, accident and life insurance brokerage.
AFI Assurances is an independent French insurance broker based in Evry (Essonne), specialised in digital health, accident and life insurance for B2C customers. The company, founded in 1996, is led by its founder, Frédéric Bacmann.
AFI Assurances has long-standing relationships with major insurance companies such as Generali, Swiss Life, Malakoff Médéric, and Allianz.
With a growth in its business of 25 per cent per year, AFI Assurances has become a leading independent health, accident and life insurance broker in France.
As part of the transaction, Frédéric Bacmann will become a partner alongside the founders of Active Assurances (Didier Naccache, Thomas Riottot, Denis Salmoiraghi). The new group will have total sales of over EUR20 million.
This transaction allows Active Assurances to develop an additional savoir-faire alongside its non-life products and to grow its range of solutions for its insurance partners.
As part of this merger, the company has completed a refinancing of its bank debt facilities put in place in May 2018 at the time of the initial investment of Activa Capital and Bpifrance. The new debt financing is provided by Idinvest Partners and Bpifrance Financement.
This partnership demonstrates Activa Capital’s capacity to accompany entrepreneurial management teams, transforming growth SMEs and structuring build-up opportunities.
Thomas Riottot, Founding Director of Active Assurances, says: “In May 2018, we chose Activa Capital for its savoir-faire in build-ups. We are very pleased with this first transaction with AFI Assurances and proud to welcome Frédéric Bacmann, who shares our entrepreneurial vision, into the new group. The complementarity of our companies and products will allow us to accelerate our development and strengthen our relationship with our insurance company partners. By integrating both of our wholesale activities, respectively Visual and Wazari, we will have more than 1000 active brokers who will benefit from a full range of non-life, life and health insurance products.”
Frédéric Bacmann, Founding Director of AFI Assurances, says: “The choice to join forces with the Active Assurances group will allow AFI Assurances to consolidate its market position and accelerate its growth in the personal health and life insurance market, which is undergoing major transformation.”
Alexandre Masson and Christophe Parier, Partners at Activa Capital, adds: “This first build-up is in line with Activa Capital’s strategy of investing alongside ambitious founders in order to help them accelerate their growth. The merger of Active Assurances and AFI Assurances provides very promising growth prospects.”
Ménelé Chesnot and Matthieu Rabeisen of Bpifrance, adds: “With the merger of AFI Assurances, the Active Assurances group expands its portfolio of products and reinforces its links with its leading insurance company partners. This transformational deal is important for Bpifrance as it demonstrates our strategy of accompanying SMEs in their growth to becoming mid-cap companies.”