Following the closing of its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube - which raised £893,620 - Honcho has raised an additional £1.2 million through a new funding round with existing investors Finance Durham and the North East Development Capital Fund.

The UK-based InsurTech startup has already raised £1.8 million from a combination of crowd investors on Crowdcube, angel investors and investment manager Maven Capital Partners, between 2018 and 2019.

Honcho operates a reverse-auction marketplace, where insurers enter a competitive real-time bidding process to offer the best cover price to customers.

It launched in summer 2018 with nearly 20 insurance companies paying a £1 fee to bid rather than the average £50 commission charged by comparison sites. Since then it has signed up more than 10,000 consumers and a further 14 insurers to its platform.

Chief executive Gavin Sewell said that in addition to continued support from Finance Durham and Maven, “we’re also thrilled to welcome Insurtech Gateway to the honcho family – as specialists in our sector they will bring an immense amount of support to honcho as we enter our next phase of growth”.

Insurtech Gateway chief executive Richard Chattock commented: “Today’s consumers rightly demand fairer, more transparent insurance - Honcho’s new model delivers this.

“It reduces commissions, eliminates bias and allows consumers to make purchasing decisions on product as well as price.”

The recent investment backer Honcho’s launch into the car insurance marketplace last autumn, with work underway on expansion into new insurance markets in 2020.

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