Goji is the largest online, independent auto insurance agency in the U.S.
Boston-based Goji continues its expansion with the appointment this month of Amit Basak as president. In this new role he will work directly with CEO Steve Kezirian.
“Amit and I have worked together for two decades. We are methodically building a team that will differentiate and scale Goji to successfully serve our three key constituents: our employees, our carrier partners and our consumers,” said Goji CEO Steve Kezirian. “His experience managing and investing in rapidly growing, technology-enabled services companies matches perfectly with what we need at Goji,” added Kezirian. “We are focused on executing against the priorities that allow us to combine our technology, people and processes to match consumers with the best available carrier partners.”
Prior to joining Goji, Mr. Basak served as Chairman of Acclaris and General Partner at Staley Capital, a growth capital firm that he co-founded and co-managed. He first began his career in the Financial Institutions Investment Banking Group at Morgan Stanley and Transforming Industries practice at J.H. Whitney & Co. In addition, Mr. Basak also has held leadership roles during intense growth periods at AffinityX, ClickSquared (acquired by Zeta Interactive), Compete (acquired by WPP) and Yantra Corporation (acquired by IBM).
In his new position as President, Mr. Basak will directly oversee all aspects of Goji’s product, marketing, finance and analytics functions. “Working with a group of committed and talented people focused on achieving the same mission is a privilege, and I plan to nurture that continued, corporate-wide commitment in my new role as President. Steve and I are passionate about building something special for all stakeholders and share similar core values around how we want to build the Goji team, advance the technology stack and manage the business,” added Basak.
Mr. Basak graduated cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in Ethics, Politics & Economics. He then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is currently serving as a Board Director at AffinityX, Digital Globe Services (LSE AIM: DGS), and The Nashoba Learning Group (a private school dedicated to helping people with autism realize their potential).
Goji going through a grand expansion
As Agency Checklists reported last month, online agency Goji is ramping up its operations in Massachusetts. In September, the company announced the opening of its second office location in Hudson, Mass. with plans to expand the Goji team to over 350 employees over the next 12 months. This will include hiring more than 100 employees who will be based in the new Goji office in Hudson. As such, hiring will be centered within the Commonwealth although all of the company’s employees become licensed agents in many jurisdictions in order to sell insurance nationally.
According to Goji what sets its agency apart from the competition is its SaaS technology platform that automates and supports acquisition marketing, customer relationship management and integration with insurance carrier systems. In addition, the agency has also developed its own proprietary quoting engine which helps customers find their perfect fit in choosing one of Goji’s carrier partners. The application is powered by millions of customer attributes, interactions, quotes and policies generated by the company’s high-volume, insurance sales centers. According to the company, their SaaS platform is the first complete platform in the industry to address the entire consumer lifecycle with property and casualty insurance carriers.
