SME-focused insurtech platform io.insure has expanded to the UK and appointed George Apperly as Managing Partner to lead the business there.

Mr Apperly’s job includes fostering partnerships that would support the growth of Mio – a merger and acquisition (M&A) insurance product aimed at SME businesses – and other financial lines and specialty products.

He joins from Lockton where he was most recently VP Lockton Transactional Risks. Before Lockton, he was account executive at Howden.

“With an estimated 5.6 million SMEs in the UK and with a huge volume of deals happening without insurance, io.insure is designed to meet this need for underserved SMEs, which are the lifeblood of the UK economy,” io.insure co-founder and Executive Partner Killian McDermott said.

io.insure launched in Australia in January last year and later expanded to the US in June.