The story
Founded by Simon Nixon in 1993.1
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.
Later that month, the company was the subject of an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange at a price that valued the business at circa £1 billion. It was one of the largest tech flotations in the United Kingdom to have taken place for many years.
In 2012, Moneysupermarket announced the acquisition of MoneySavingExpert.com for £87 million. Following the acquisition, MoneySavingExpert remained editorially independent and its founder, Martin Lewis, remained as the chief editor of the platform. The company announced in 2015 that Lewis would be reducing his overall holding in Moneysupermarket.com to 1.5%.
In October 2016, the company announced that Mark Lewis, a former retail director at John Lewis, would take over as CEO from Peter Plumb in May 2017.
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In September 2020, in another change in management, Peter Duffy took over as CEO.
On 19 October 2021, Moneysupermarket announced it was acquiring Maple Syrup Media, the owners of the UK cashback website, Quidco.com. The sale amount is reported to be £87 million in cash, plus an additional £14 million as a deferred payment.
On 2 May 2024, MoneySuperMarket Group plc announced it was changing its corporate holding name to MONY Group, a decision made to reflect the Group had "evolved" in recent years beyond the original price comparison website. This change came into effect on 20 May 2024.
From Wikipedia’s article on MoneySuperMarket, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5