BRIT twin entrepreneurs Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham founded Marshmallow in their 20s and initially ran it using free wi-fi out of a Virgin Active gym.
The pioneering fintech insurance company was valued at around £1.5 billion in 2025 — here’s everything you need to know.
GettyOliver and Alexander Kent-Braham (right) and were featured in the 2025 Rich List[/caption]
Who are the Kent-Braham twins?
Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham co-founded Marshmallow — a pioneering car insurance fintech company that has achieved unicorn status.
Fintechs are companies that rely primarily on technology and cloud services to provide financial services, rather than physical locations.
And in the context of venture capital and startups, “unicorn status” refers to a private company valued at over $1 billion.
Oliver and Alexander were featured in the 2025 Rich List, ranking seventh on the 40 Under 40 list with an estimated wealth of £704 million.
The brothers were the biggest insurance climbers on the list, highlighting their rapid rise among the UK’s wealthiest youngsters.
Selling golf balls at 12
Oliver and Alexander began their entrepreneurial journey early, selling golf balls they retrieved from a lake by the age of 12.
Educated at Reed’s School in Surrey, where they were talented tennis players — even representing Great Britain at under-16 level — the twins eventually shifted their focus from sports to technology and finance — particularly fintech.
They identified a significant gap in the UK insurance market — the difficult “riskier” groups such as young drivers, or those with low credit scores, face when trying to get affordable car insurance.
In 2017, Oliver and Alexander founded Marshmallow alongside chief technology officer (CTO) David Goaté and industry veteran Tim Holliday, who’s now the CEO of the company,
The company was initially run from the lobby of a Virgin Active gym, where their vision of using advanced data science and technology to offer fairer pricing and coverage came to life.
In 2021, Oliver told the BBC: “We were all members of Virgin Active gym. It had wi-fi, coffee and a location on The Strand!”
He added: “If we were going to start again we would look to raise capital sooner, because before you raise capital you don’t have the confidence to take the next step.
Marshmallow car insuranceMarshmallow car insurance billboard[/caption]
“It was literally Tim Holliday, David, Alexander and myself for nine months. Tim joined our company not taking a salary.”
Their next step was to raise capital to grow the business.
Oliver said: “Venture capitalists hold the keys to starting new companies.
“You have to have a mutual acquaintance to even speak to many funders and that needs to change,”
Marshmallow quickly grew, attracting over 100,000 users early on and expanding its team significantly.
The company has gone on to raise substantial venture capital funding, including an $85 million (£63 million) Series B round in 2021, which valued it at $1.25 billion (930 million), before a $90 million (67 million) funding round in 2025 that nearly doubled its valuation to $2 billion (£1.5 billion).
The Kent-Braham twins have become notable figures not only for their business success, but also for their role in promoting diversity and inclusion in the fintech and insurtech sectors, which have been often been viewed as traditionally conservative.
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