Innovation intelligence brief
Innovation intelligence brief
Your Personal Insurance Concierge
What became of it
Completed · High confidence · Last verified 2026-10-17
As catalogued
London 'personal insurance concierge' app (founded by Phoebe Hugh and Mykhailo Loginov via Entrepreneur First) that stored a user's existing policies, flagged coverage gaps and overlaps, and recommended better deals.
2026 reality
Brolly no longer exists as a product. Direct Line Group acquired it in July 2020, closed the Brolly app on 30 July 2020 and ended its contents policies; the team moved into Direct Line Group. The heybrolly.com domain now hosts unrelated content.
Raised a GBP 1 million seed round in 2017 (Valar Ventures, Pi Labs); in August 2019 launched its own Brolly Contents home contents insurance with flexible monthly cover up to GBP 40,000. Acquired by Direct Line Group in July 2020 (terms undisclosed), after which its products were discontinued and its team absorbed. Founder Phoebe Hugh later led Direct Line's car-ownership app Caha!, which Direct Line shut down in June 2024.
Direct Line bought Brolly mainly for its team and digital capabilities (described as accelerating its digital transformation), not to keep the standalone app.
no longer active; an example of an insurtech acqui-hire by a UK incumbent, whose standalone proposition was closed and whose follow-on venture (Caha!) was also wound down.
Third taxonomy
REVIEW · Verified the July 2020 acquisition and the 30 July 2020 app shutdown (TechCrunch) and the June 2024 Caha closure (Coverager). Resolved the open ownership question: Aviva completed its takeover of Direct Line Group in July 2025 (Insurance Times), so currentOwner was updated and a milestone added.
Documented evidence
Policy Overview
Personal Advice
Aggregated policies
Policy check
Research interpretation
Classification paths, as catalogued, connect this example to the original insurance digitalization research models.