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Urban Jungle
Urban Jungle crafts insurance for the demands of a new generation
- 21-100 employees
- Fintech
- Insurance
- Social Impact
- D2C
- Lambeth, London, UK
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Company mission
To craft great insurance for the demands of a new generation. End of story.
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
49% female employees
29% employee growth in 12 months
Our take
Urban Jungle was founded in 2016 by a team from both in and outside of the insurance industry. Jimmy Williams and Greg Smyth noticed that the insurance industry was moving at a really slow pace, hardly taking advantage of the available technology and often leaving customers behind, especially younger ones. Now Urban Jungle is the top rated home insurance provider in the UK.
Modern insurers have inherited, from their 80s predecessors, a highly inefficent general approach to the industry: when launching a new system, only new customers are included in it, while old customers remain in the old system. Customer Service Operatives at really big insurers are fishing in different systems to find people's records and that does not favour productivity at all. The challenge with Urban Jungle’s process is to build up the insurance experience from scratch taking advantage of the technology that has been developed in recent years, reducing costs and empowering customers.
Special attention needs to be paid to the insurance product. The responsiveness to the way people's risks are changing over time is a key aspect that insurers should always bear in mind. Adapting the insurance product to ever-changing needs is definitely the main challenge for Urban Jungle and its competitors, and the best way to do it is to keep continuous and direct contact with customers. Regularly testing the current insurance offer and showing readiness when adapting the product to a new necessity is the real turning point and what Urban Jungle is working for.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Benefits
- Share options that can increase alongside performance and growth.
- 25 days paid annual leave, plus public holidays.
- Rapid Progression. We’ll give you the opportunity to experience loads, and develop rapidly. You’ll get tons of responsibility from day one, and all the feedback, coaching and support you need to fuel your career growth.
- Real Impact. You’ll work on big, interesting problems that will challenge you, and do so in a way that has a positive impact on people’s lives, the planet and our community.
- A Clear Plan. We’ll give you the clarity on what we want to achieve, with the freedom and autonomy for you to decide how we get there.
- The Best People. You’ll be surrounded by teammates who are exceptional at what they do, whilst being kind, honest people who champion our values.
- A dedicated development budget, access to a senior mentor, and training on whatever you need to do your job well.
- Well-being support. We’re committed to supporting both physical and mental well-being through access to therapy, weekly onsite yoga, and subsidised sports clubs.
- Enhanced parental leave, and support for parents returning to work.
- All. The. Fun. We regularly organise awesome socials and have some vibrant team communities such as book club and foodies.
Company values
- Customer First. We do the right thing, even when no one is watching. We’ll always talk to our community of customers to stay on top of what that is.
- Be Responsible. We don’t just say we care, we show it with our actions. We make decisions that take into account the world around us, whether that be considering the environment, supporting diversity or creating a great place to work.
- Keep Getting Better. We always look for ways to innovate and improve next time. We’re open and honest about what’s working and not.
- Aim For Extraordinary. Nothing daunts us. We never back away from the toughest problems, and hold ourselves to the highest standards. We’re setting a new pace in an industry that moves slowly.
Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)
Apr 2024
$14.3m
SERIES A
May 2022
$21.1m
SERIES A
Total funding: $55.8m
Leadership
Jimmy Williams
(CEO & Co-Founder)His background is in consulting, where he worked with various insurers, tech providers in financial services, and price comparison sites, as a Principal at OC&C.
Greg Smyth
(CTO & Co-Founder)He was most recently VP of Research and Data Technology at Winton Capita. Previously he worked at Facebook, starting their first engineering team in London, and Google.
People progressing
Julia joined the team as our Data Analyst in 2020, and was promoted to Senior Data Analyst after 1 year. Julia now heads up our BI & Analytics team at Urban Jungle.
Tiago joined us as Software Engineer in 2019, and after several promotions, he is now our Principal Engineer.
Lara joined us as Junior UX/UI Designer in 2021 and was promoted to UX/UI Designer after 18 months in the role.
Sandra started her career as an NHS doctor before joining the team as a Software Engineer. After just 9 months, she was promoted to Senior Software Engineer.
Office
Articles
Endorsements
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Opportunities to learn (4)
Intelligent people (4)
Challenging work (2)
Autonomy (2)
Open and honest communication (2)
Nice people (1)
My opinions are valued (1)
Supportive management (1)
Focus on employee wellbeing (1)
As an engineer here, you are able to gain responsibility and learn fast. We're a constantly growing and adapting team and there are always new challenges that we pull together on. I have so much fun working in this environment where I'm encouraged to shape my own journey while still being supported every step of the way.
Software Engineering
Autonomy
Jan 2023
My colleagues have such a broad range of expertise and perspectives. At each stage of a project, we dream big and then strategise to make sure we have the best outcome by distilling down the best ideas to the best solution.
Software Engineering
Intelligent people
Jan 2023
This is a learning environment. Not only are we encouraged to ask and learn from others but we are encouraged to teach and share our own knowledge. This creates an environment where everyone is learning all the time.
Software Engineering
Opportunities to learn
Jan 2023
The Urban Jungle Team is full of really smart people who are always eager to keep learning more and challenge each other. I'm definitely developing more and thinking about things in new ways because of my colleagues!
Operations & Strategy
Intelligent people
May 2021
My work at Urban Jungle is always challenging, giving me plenty of opportunity to learn, develop, and get great things done.
Operations & Strategy
Challenging work
May 2021
My manager is very encouraging and supportive. They are very generous with advice and their top tips as well as challenging me to think about things differently! The entire management team here is very transparent and really recognises the human side of work!
Operations & Strategy
Supportive management
May 2021
The projects we work on at Urban Jungle are always challenging and impactful, making them hugely rewarding. We're always given the support we need along the way as well.
Operations & Strategy
Challenging work
May 2021
At Urban Jungle, we often tackle brand new problems or challenges, which means we have to learn non-stop. It's really great as it's hard to imagine a point where we will stop learning. We also have a great leadership team to help us out along the way.
Operations & Strategy
Opportunities to learn
May 2021
The Urban Jungle team genuinely is amazing! You'll meet some super friendly people who also happen to be really smart and interesting.
Operations & Strategy
Nice people
May 2021
There is a lot of autonomy from the get-go, but there is also always support and guidance if you need it - making for a great balance of challenging but not scary! At Urban Jungle learning is also constant. Whether it's on the job, through personal development goals or catchups with your mentor, to quote one of our values 'Expect to Learn'.
Product
Opportunities to learn
May 2021
Whilst we were all working from home the leadership team were constantly trying new things to make sure everyone was still kept in the loop. Our CEO introduced open 1-2-1s, where anyone in the company could listen in on alternate 1-2-1 between himself and the rest of leadership, to replace the chats that used to happen openly in the office.
Product
Open and honest communication
May 2021
Voicing your opinion is always encouraged at Urban Jungle, especially when you've just joined and are able to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective!
Product
My opinions are valued
May 2021
Opportunities to learn about every part of the business through initiates like workmate Wednesday where once a month time is dedicated to learning about someone else's role and what they're working on at the moment. You'll also likely be part of business wide projects learning about every role. Urban Jungle gives you a budget to spend on books every year to further your knowledge.
Marketing
Opportunities to learn
May 2021
It's great to be surrounded by so many smart people who go by the motto of 'there is no stupid question' to allow you to get up to speed quickly. Urban Jungle also puts emphasis on hiring really smart but also nice people so it's very refreshing!
Marketing
Intelligent people
May 2021
Urban Jungle have launched loads of stuff while being in lockdown. From weekly yoga classes to running club when we're in the office. Urban Jungle also provide coaching sessions with a company called Sanctus to chat about your mental health & wellbeing. Managers regularly check in on you and genuinely care, rather than a tick box. They also send through treats every now again, whether that's brownies, beers, wine, coffee!
Marketing
Focus on employee wellbeing
May 2021
It's always much more fun working with a bunch of smart people who are dedicated to coming up with solutions to hard problems together. It helps that they're also all really nice as well!
Product
Intelligent people
May 2021
The ability to take real ownership of your work, and make autonomous decisions within strong frameworks of context is super important to me. That's something I think comes over strongly when you work for Urban Jungle.
Product
Autonomy
May 2021
At Urban Jungle, openness is truly valued. All our numbers are out there for everyone to see, and we have lots of conversations that in most businesses might be behind closed doors in public settings - including throughout the pandemic.
Product
Open and honest communication
May 2021
Jobs (6)
Software Engineering
Data
Operations & Strategy
Finance, Legal & Compliance
Design
