As founders of digital car insurance start-up Marshmallow, twins Alexander and Oliver Kent-Braham saw their firm reach the dizzying heights of unicorn status – a company worth more than $1billion – in 2023. 

It became only the second black-owned start-up in the UK to accomplish this feat. Marshmallow caters to the needs of marginalised customers and those who usually struggle to find affordable insurance – often non-UK nationals. With a $1.25billion valuation, the insurtech company also became the second-fastest growing company in Europe. 

By the time they were in their late 20s the pair had amassed a £455million fortune, making them the wealthiest new entrants in The Sunday Times 2022 Young Rich List. In October 2023, the company declared an almost tripling of sales – with turnover climbing 179 per cent to £22.9million and profits jumping to £709,000. 

Marshmallow said it had so far sold more than 342,000 policies, with more than 300,000 downloads of its app and upwards of £66million paid out in claims. The firm has also developed its own pricing and fraud algorithms and models which allow it to better cater to customers without a driving history in the UK.

The brothers were educated at Reed’s, the Surrey fee-paying school where former UK tennis No.1 Tim Henman was once a pupil. Although they played tennis for Great Britain at under-16 level, the twins abandoned dreams of turning professional to establish their firm. 

They started Marshmallow in 2017 alongside David Goate (co-founder and CTO), and the founding team also includes industry veteran Tim Holliday. The team now counts more than 50 employees and growing. Prior to Marshmallow, the Kent-Brahams were cofounders at Reel Money. Alexander, Oliver and David were also members of the founding team at Yoti, a digital identity system.