Cover Genius acquires event refund policy provider

26 July 2022

Cover Genius has acquired UK insurtech Booking Protect, which offers refund protection policies alongside live event ticket sales.

Booking Protect was founded in Leeds in 2014 and operates in Australia, where OzTix is a partner, as well as the UK, Europe, US and Asia.

It offers comprehensive refund protection for all elements of the booking including tickets, travel, accommodation. All fees are offered alongside the existing booking process, with no administration or cost on the retailer’s part.

Cover Genius will embed the protection in its XCover platform worldwide, enabling Booking Protect’s 350-plus partners, venues, ticketing platforms, event organisers and ticket sellers to offer it to their customers.

CEO Angus McDonald says the $US72 billion ($103 billion) event and ticketing industry is a “huge addressable market”.

“Acquisitions like this set us to be able to go deep within highly attractive verticals like ticketing,” Mr McDonald said.

“It’s a natural fit for us to team up with established leaders in specialty fields like ticketing who have built a great service and end-to-end solution.”

He said Booking Protect had achieved its success “at the expense of traditional insurers whose legacy systems contribute to poor customer outcomes and stunted growth for partners.”

XCover is available at Amazon, eBay, Wayfair, Descartes ShipRush and other global retailers.

Co-founded by Mr McDonald and CIO Chris Bayley, a first employee in Google’s Sydney office, Cover Genius is now licensed in more than 60 countries to be recently valued by Bloomberg at $1 billion.