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A new franchise brokerage, Co-Pilot Finance and Insurance (CPFI), has been launched to create a network of ‘agencies’ to shake-up SME finance and insurance offerings.
Co-Pilot Finance and Insurance (CPFI), a new franchise brokerage with its own credit licence aggregating under SFG and COG, has officially launched.
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Co-founded by commercial brokers George Dib (formerly of Amfin) and Peter Magoulias (formerly of Initial Finance Group), Co-Pilot Finance and Insurance aims to create a network of broker “agencies” providing business finance and insurance for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
CPFI gives SMEs access to commercial loans, working capital and equipment finance, while also offering a range of general and specialised business insurance products.
The new franchise brokerage aims to meet pent-up demand from SMEs looking for tailored financial and insurance coverage under one roof.
Dib and Magoulias officially began trading CPFI as its own brokerage in October 2024 but has since grown to operate across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, with 20 brokerages, or “agencies”, signed and another 10 reportedly “in the pipeline”.
The company said it aims to have 100 locations across the country operating under the Co-Pilot Finance and Insurance brand by 2027.
Through its expanding national agency network, CPFI also aims to offer SMEs a more localised focus compared to traditional lenders —offering personalised expertise tailored to the challenges of each local market.
One-stop shop for SMEs
At an official launch event onboard the Ghost II superyacht in Sydney Harbour on Friday (21 February), co-founder and CEO George Dib told guests that CPFI aims to become the “hero brand for SMEs by unifying businesses and insurance”, while giving clients a more personal approach.
The company said that SMEs have “long struggled with limited, one-size-fits-all options”.
“By fusing cutting-edge technology with an expanding national agency network, CPFI is flipping the script on how SMEs secure the funding and protection they need—not just to survive, but to dominate their industries,” it explained.
In an exclusive interview with The Adviser, Dib explained that CPFI was born of a need to better-serve small businesses and support referral partners.
“Our model is specifically there to service businesses,” he stressed.
“We wanted to take on and improve the way in which referrers [are used].
“Finance is such an important thing which hasn't been properly looked after by anybody, because we are consistently looking at lenders to give us guidance, and it's always so topsy turvy,” Dib said.
“We thought, if we create a business that is solely about the business owner, let's understand it. Let's look at you [the client’s business] holistically.”
Dib’s previous experience in SME finance and business insurance was a major factor in the decision to build an agency model that aims to put flexibility, choice and guidance at the centre of decisions rather than rigid products that fail to acknowledge the complexities of running a business.
Persisting frustrations with the use of referrals also influenced CPFI’s business model, based around offering SMEs a one-stop shop for their finance and insurance needs.
“The industry says if you want to do asset [finance], [or] if you're a mortgage broker, you need to use referral buttons. No, that’s nonsense. It's nonsense. All the information that we're all requesting is the same.”
“If we're informed, if we know how to truly look after a business client, then how much better is it for them and how much more opportunity are they gonna get to actually get what they're looking for without being jammed into a specific product?”
Summarising, Dibb said that what made CFPI unique was that it was “taking all of those products that everybody tells you that you need a referrer [for] and bringing them into one.”
CPFI’s head of agency and co-founder, Peter Magoulias, added that the “overwhelming possibility of the brand” gave him confidence of hitting the company’s growth goals.
He added that its agencies were leading the way in scaling the company.
“Our agency partners are the front line of this change,” Magoulias explained.
“We’re giving them the tools to deliver smarter, sharper finance and insurance solutions—so that more business owners can make confident, future-proofed decisions.”
When asked what can sustain CPFI’s ambitious growth strategy, Dib answered: “We're doing something different. Definitely.
“We care about them [our agencies] deeply. We only want 100 and if we don't make sure that those hundred are doing what they need to do, there's no business for us.”
[Related: Branding gains new significance as broker numbers swell]
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