Former Zego executive Laura Ashforth is wagering that Britain's fitness-conscious over-60s represent an underserved insurance opportunity—and she's convinced some of fintech's sharpest investors to back her.
Ashforth's startup, Lateral, announced a £2.5 million seed round on February 3, led by Augmentum Fintech with backing from Triple Point and Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company. The funding comes as the nine-person company begins rolling out a private medical insurance product it describes as purpose-built for a demographic slice the industry has largely overlooked: people in their seventh decade who still hit the gym.
It's a narrow target, admittedly. But Ashforth, who spent years as Managing Director at the insurtech unicorn Zego, argues there's room to carve out something different in a market dominated by household names like Bupa and AXA Health.
A ManyPets Reunion of Sorts
Ashforth isn't flying solo. Steven Mendel, who co-founded and ran ManyPets—the pet insurance company formerly known as Bought By Many—serves as Lateral's executive chair. Mendel stepped back from the CEO role at ManyPets in April 2024, after steering the company through a $350 million Series D round in 2021 that valued it north of $2 billion.
The two incorporated Live Lateral Limited on March 3, 2025. According to Companies House filings, both founders hold between 25% and 50% of the company's shares and voting rights, a fairly even split that suggests neither came in as a junior partner.
There's a certain logic to the pairing. Mendel built a business around the idea that pet owners would pay up for better coverage and service; Ashforth is now testing whether the same holds true for a cohort of humans who view aging as something to be actively managed rather than passively endured.
The Nurse-Led Pitch
Here's how Lateral works: It offers private medical insurance to people aged 60 to 75—provided they tick a series of health boxes. Prospective members must be non-smokers with a BMI between 18 and 30, free of serious ongoing conditions, and registered with a UK GP for at least two years. Policies renew annually up to age 80.
The hook, as Lateral tells it, is less about the insurance itself and more about navigation. Qualified nurses guide members through private care options and NHS pathways, including Right to Choose routes where those make sense. The company positions the service as running alongside NHS care, not as a wholesale replacement—a framing that may prove important in a country where the health service remains something of a third rail politically.
Benefits bundled into the plan include an annual health check through Bluecrest Wellness, round-the-clock virtual GP access via HealthHero, virtual dietician consultations, and physiotherapy (up to six virtual sessions yearly, with an additional six in-person sessions available by referral). Lateral's website floats £150 per month as an example premium for a 67-year-old, though actual pricing hinges on individual underwriting.
Whether that represents a meaningful discount or premium compared to legacy providers isn't entirely clear—the company is still early enough that competitive pricing comparisons feel somewhat premature.
A Crowded Field, a Growing Market
The UK private medical insurance sector covers roughly 6.2 million people. Insured private hospital admissions climbed 6% year-over-year to hit a record 939,000 in 2024, per data from the Private Healthcare Information Network reported mid-2025. At the same time, the over-60 population in Britain has swelled to more than 14.5 million and is projected to exceed 17 million by 2040, according to BusinessCloud.
That's a lot of potential customers. It's also a lot of competition. Beyond the major insurers, Saga has long targeted the over-50 set with health products, and new entrants continue testing different angles on the aging market.
Lateral operates as an Appointed Representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, which holds the necessary FCA authorization—a regulatory structure common among insurance startups that aren't yet ready to shoulder the full compliance burden themselves.
What Comes Next
The company says it plans to expand its health navigation and preventive benefits as the commercial launch gains traction. Augmentum's portfolio page frames Lateral's mission in aspirational terms: "rethinking the health and wealth bigger picture for fit, active over-60s" who "have no intention of stopping."
There's an interesting footnote to the Augmentum investment. The fintech-focused firm itself agreed to a cash acquisition by Verdane in late February 2026, though the Lateral deal reportedly closed in late 2025—before that transaction was announced. Whether Verdane's arrival changes anything for Lateral remains to be seen.
For now, Ashforth and Mendel are betting that a segment of Britain's aging population will pay for insurance that treats them less like retirees and more like athletes who happen to be drawing closer to pension age. It's a hypothesis that will take more than £2.5 million to fully test, but it's a start.
