Capital move by Peterborough-based insurance giant

Jon Mullen, associate director with BGL, will lead the company's new tech hub in London.

The BGL Group, of Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, will base 150 staff at the award-winning White Collar Factory on Silicon Roundabout in London’s Shoreditch.

It will be BGL’s first permanent London base and the company will occupy the 14,300sq ft sixth floor - of the 16-storey building.

Many of the staff will move from the firm’s temporary office in London.

Matthew Donaldson, chief executive, said: “For us it’s a priority to stay at the forefront of digital technology so that we can best support our customers with mobile apps and websites with a laser focus on user experience.

“Basing ourselves at White Collar Factory, in the heart of London’s thriving tech industry, will allow our teams to work in an atmosphere of creativity, bouncing ideas off colleagues and professionals in the wider industry and continuing to break new ground in digital and data innovation.

He added: “We firmly believe that our new tech-focused hub, with world class connectivity, will support us in attracting and retaining the best talent in digital, brand and data.

“We’ve equipped our teams with the latest technology and flexible working spaces to allow them to unleash their vision and imagination.”

BGL Group is home to price comparison website comparethemarket.com, and a leading digital distributor of household financial products to more than eight million customers in the UK.

The office will be led by Jon Mullen, associate director, product engineering, who brings years of experience in Agile-driven product delivery, having led the delivery of NOWTV and overseen a departmental transformation of more than 1,300 people as head of software excellence and culture at Sky.

Some of the roles to be based at the White Collar Factory include full stack software engineers, big data engineers, data scientists specialising in real time data processing and machine learning implementation, and UX designers.

The workspace will include a usability lab – an environment where users are studied interacting with applications – and a mobile device lab to automate the testing of applications across a suite of physical devices.

The White Collar Factory is the winner of the MIPIM Visionary Building award 2016.

Features include a rooftop running track, roof terrace with extensive views across London, 276 cycle spaces, flexible working spaces plus a courtyard, cafés and restaurants.

Peterborough-based insurance giant BGL considers stock market listing

Peterborough insurance giant makes senior appointment as it considers stock exchange flotation