MONY Group

History

The company was founded by Simon Nixon and Duncan Cameron as a mortgage subscription business in 1987. It expanded rapidly during the mid-1990s. In the late 1990s, Nixon realised that the introduction of easy access to the internet would create opportunities for web-based businesses. He launched a website which facilitated price comparison for personal loans and credit cards which was marketed as a business to consumer business.

As the web-based business expanded to offer mortgage comparisons, Nixon decided to close the traditional mortgage subscription business which at the time was known as Mortgage 2000. As Cameron had been recruited to run the IT side of Mortgage 2000, there was no longer a full-time role for him and, from 2002, he simply became a silent partner in the business.

In 2000, Moneysupermarket announced the launch of Travelsupermarket.com. The website operated in the same way as Moneysupermarket, but compared prices for the travel market. The goal of Travelsupermarket was to provide transparent pricing, describing the exact differences between the different price structures being offered.

In 2002, the company appeared in The Sunday Times' Fast Track 100, and it was also the 80th fastest growing tech business in the United Kingdom in the period from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, Nixon was declared Entrepreneur of the Year at the National Business Awards.

In June 2007, The Guardian reported that Moneysupermarket was processing 52% of all the price comparisons in the UK. However, the reporter also pointed out that, in the case of household and car insurance, price comparison websites such as Moneysupermarket rarely include all products on the market and that price comparisons are consequently incomplete. Also, in June 2007, Nixon acquired Cameron's 47% stake in the business for £162 million.