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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
☑ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022
OR
☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
for the transition period from to
Commission file number: 001-39367
Lemonade, Inc.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
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Delaware | | | 32-0469673 |
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | | | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
5 Crosby Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10013
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(844) 733-8666
(Registrant’s telephone number including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
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Title of each class | | Trading Symbol(s) | | Name of each exchange on which registered |
Common Stock, $0.00001 par value per share | | LMND | | The New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☑ Yes ☐ No
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. ☐ Yes ☑ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☑ Yes ☐ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). ☑ Yes ☐ No
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Large accelerated filer | ☑ | | Accelerated filer | ☐ |
Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | | Smaller reporting company | ☐ |
| | | Emerging growth company | ☐ |
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). ☐ Yes ☑ No
The aggregate market value of the common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing sales price of $18.26 on June 30, 2022, was approximately $753,587,881.
Registrant had 69,301,430 shares of common stock outstanding as of March 3, 2023.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the Registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement relating to its 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated.
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Part I | |
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Item 1 | | |
Item 1A. | | |
Item 1B. | | |
Item 2. | | |
Item 3. | | |
Item 4. | | |
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Part II | |
Item 5. | | |
Item 6. | | |
Item 7. | | |
Item 7A. | | |
Item 8. | | |
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Item 9. | | |
Item 9A. | | |
Item 9B. | | |
Item 9C. | | |
Part III | |
Item 10. | | |
Item 11. | | |
Item 12. | | |
Item 13. | | |
Item 14. | | |
Part IV | |
Item 15. | | |
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Item 16. | | |
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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this Annual Report are forward-looking statements, including without limitation, statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, our ability to attract, retain and expand our customer base, our ability to operate under and maintain our business model, our ability to maintain and enhance our brand and reputation, our ability to effectively manage the growth of our business, the effects of seasonal trends on our results of operations, our ability to attain greater value from each customer, our ability to compete effectively in our industry, the future performance of the markets in which we operate, our ability to maintain reinsurance contracts, the anticipated benefits of the Metromile acquisition and the plans and objectives of management for future operations and capital expenditures. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.
In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential”, or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this Annual Report are only predictions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this Annual Report and are subject to a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including the factors described under the sections in this Annual Report titled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
You should read this Annual Report and the documents that we reference in this Annual Report completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements. Except as required by applicable law, we do not plan to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.
In this Annual Report, unless we indicate otherwise or the context otherwise requires, "Lemonade," the “Company," "we," "our," "ours" and "us" refer to Lemonade, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Lemonade Insurance Company, Lemonade Insurance Agency, LLC, and Metromile, Inc.
SUMMARY RISK FACTORS
Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those described in Part I Item 1A. “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report. You should carefully consider these risks and uncertainties, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report, when investing in our common stock. The principal risks and uncertainties affecting our business include the following:
•We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
•Our success and ability to grow our business depend on retaining and expanding our customer base. If we fail to add new customers or retain current customers, our business, revenue, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
•The "Lemonade" brand may not become as widely known as incumbents' brands or the brand may become tarnished.
•Denial of claims or our failure to accurately and timely pay claims could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
•Our future revenue growth and prospects depend on attaining greater value from each user.
•The novelty of our business model makes its efficacy unpredictable and susceptible to unintended consequences.
•We could be forced to modify or eliminate our Giveback, which could undermine our business model and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
•Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our current business performance, implementation of our business model, and our future prospects.
•We may not be able to manage our growth effectively.
•Intense competition in the segments of the insurance industry in which we operate could negatively affect our ability to attain or increase profitability.
•Reinsurance may be unavailable at current levels and prices, which may limit our ability to write new business. Furthermore, reinsurance subjects us to counterparty risk and may not be adequate to protect us against losses.
•Failure to maintain our risk-based capital at the required levels could adversely affect the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to maintain regulatory authority to conduct our business.
•If we are unable to expand our product offerings, our prospects for future growth may be adversely affected.
•Our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms may not operate properly or as we expect them to, which could cause us to write policies we should not write, price those policies inappropriately or overpay claims that are made by our customers. Moreover, our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms may lead to unintentional bias and discrimination.
•Regulators may limit our ability to develop or implement our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms and/or may eliminate or restrict the confidentiality of our proprietary technology.
•New legislation or legal requirements may affect how we communicate with our customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business model, financial condition, and results of operations.
•We rely on artificial intelligence and our digital platform to collect data points that we evaluate in pricing and underwriting our insurance policies, managing claims and customer support, and improving business processes, and any legal or regulatory requirements that restrict our ability to collect this data could thus materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
•We may require additional capital to grow our business, which may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all.
•Security incidents or real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our systems, website or app could impair our operations, result in loss of personal customer information, damage our reputation and brand, and harm our business and operating results.
•We are periodically subject to examinations by our primary state insurance regulator, and insurance regulators of other states in which we are licensed to operate, which could result in adverse examination findings and necessitate remedial actions. We collect, process, store, share, disclose and use customer information and other data, and our actual or perceived failure to protect such information and data, respect customers' privacy or comply with data privacy and security laws and regulations could damage our reputation and brand and harm our business and operating results.
•If we are unable to underwrite risks accurately and charge competitive yet profitable rates to our customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.
•Our product development cycles are complex and subject to regulatory approval, and we may incur significant expenses before we generate revenues, if any, from new products.
•Our expansion within the United States and any future international expansion strategy will subject us to additional costs and risks and our plans may not be successful.
•The insurance business, including the market for renters and homeowners insurance, is historically cyclical in nature, and we may experience periods with excess underwriting capacity and unfavorable premium rates, which could adversely affect our business.
•We are subject to extensive insurance industry regulations.
•State insurance regulators impose additional reporting requirements regarding enterprise risk on insurance holding company systems, with which we must comply as an insurance holding company.
•Severe weather events and other catastrophes, including the effects of climate change and global pandemics, are inherently unpredictable and may have a material adverse effect on our financial results and financial condition.
•Climate risks, including risks associated with disruptions due to any transition to a low-carbon economy, could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
•Increasing scrutiny, actions, and changing expectations from investors, customers, regulators and our employees with respect to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters may impose additional costs on us, impact our access to capital, or expose us to new or additional risks.
•We expect our results of operations to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis. In addition, our operating results and operating metrics are subject to seasonality and volatility, which could result in fluctuations in our quarterly revenues and operating results or in perceptions of our business prospects.
•We rely on data from our customers and third parties for pricing and underwriting our insurance policies, handling claims and maximizing automation, the unavailability or inaccuracy of which could limit the functionality of our products and disrupt our business.
•Our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected due to limitations in the analytical models used to assess and predict our exposure to catastrophe losses.
•Our actual incurred losses may be greater than our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
•Our insurance subsidiaries are subject to minimum capital and surplus requirements, and our failure to meet these requirements could subject us to regulatory action.
•We are subject to assessments and other surcharges from state guaranty funds, and mandatory state insurance facilities, which may reduce our profitability.
•As a public benefit corporation, our focus on a specific public benefit purpose and producing a positive effect for society may negatively impact our financial performance.
•Our directors have a fiduciary duty to consider not only our stockholders' interests, but also our specific public benefit and the interests of other stakeholders affected by our actions. A joint investment committee consisting of our Co-Founders and an executive of SoftBank will have sole voting and dispositive control over the shares owned by the entities affiliated with SoftBank Group Corp. This joint investment committee further concentrates voting power with our Co-Founders, which could limit your ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.
•We conduct certain of our operations in Israel and therefore our results may be adversely affected by political, economic and military instability in Israel and the region.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Overview
Lemonade is rebuilding insurance from the ground up on a digital substrate and an innovative business model. By leveraging technology, data, artificial intelligence, contemporary design, and social impact, we believe we are making insurance more delightful, more affordable, and more precise. To that end, we have built a vertically-integrated company with wholly-owned insurance carriers in the United States and Europe, and the full technology stack to power them.
A brief chat with our bot, AI Maya, is all it takes to get covered with renters, homeowners, pet, car or life insurance, and we expect to offer a similar experience for other insurance products over time. Claims are filed by chatting with another bot, AI Jim, who pays claims in as little as three seconds. This breezy experience belies the extraordinary technology that enables it: a state-of-the-art platform that spans marketing to underwriting, customer care to claims processing, finance to regulation. Our architecture melds artificial intelligence with the human kind, and learns from the prodigious data it generates to become ever better at delighting customers and evaluating risk.
In addition to digitizing insurance end-to-end, we also reimagined the underlying business model to minimize volatility while maximizing trust and social impact. To lessen the volatility inherent in an industry directly impacted by the weather, we utilize several forms of reinsurance, with the goal of dampening the impact on our gross margin. The result is that excess claims are generally offloaded to reinsurers, while excess premiums can be donated to nonprofits selected by our customers as part of our annual "Giveback". These two ballasts, reinsurance and Giveback, reduce volatility, while creating an aligned, trustful, and values-rich relationship with our customers.
Our Business Model
At the foundation of our business model is a direct, digital, customer-centric experience that delivers rapid growth and strong retention. Our customer-centricity runs deep, and our underlying business model is designed to align interests between us and our customers. This technology-first customer acquisition and retention strategy, combined with our unconflicted business model, results in a highly attractive financial model.
We leverage technology in everything we do. More than 93% of homeowners insurance policies in the United States are sold via agents, making a platform that finds, onboards, and digitally serves consumers end-to-end very much an outlier. Our digital substrate enables us to integrate marketing and onboarding with underwriting and claims processing, collecting and deploying data throughout, to constantly drive efficient customer acquisition, enhance the experience, and mitigate risk. This approach results in significant, rapid scale coupled with high customer satisfaction.
To align our interests with those of our customers, encourage good behavior and build a long-term relationship based on mutual trust, we endeavor to decouple our financial incentives from variability in claims. Unlike many of our competitors, we work to minimize incentives to deny legitimate claims as we aim to give back, rather than pocket, leftover monies. Our reinsurance contracts serve to lessen volatility in our operating results, as a material portion of claims are borne by our reinsurance partners. See "Risk Factors — Risks Relating to Our Business”. Reinsurance may be unavailable at current levels and prices, which may limit our ability to write new business. Furthermore, reinsurance subjects us to counterparty risk and may not be adequate to protect us against losses, which could have a material effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
After our customers purchase a policy, we ask them to designate a charitable cause for us to support. As a result, we believe customers are less inclined to embellish claims as they could be hurting a nonprofit they care about, rather than an insurance company they do not.
Strong retention rates and a subscription-based model create highly-recurring and naturally-growing revenue streams, and provide visibility into our top-line results. Our reinsurance construct, in turn, mitigates the bottom-line volatility inherent in traditional insurance companies, where profits quite literally depend on the weather. With our reinsurance agreements offloading residual claims, and our Giveback policy offloading residual premiums, we have two powerful ballasts that reduce volatility, while creating an aligned, trustful, and values-rich relationship with our customers.
This combination of a customer-focused onboarding experience, a customer-aligned business model, and a revenue stream that grows along with our customers' insurance needs, has created a sustainable financial model that we are proud of. Over time, we believe our platform will continue to efficiently acquire new customers and give us the ability to service their growing needs at a lower cost, and with higher satisfaction levels, than the industry at large.
Our Technology
Data Advantage
Our proprietary and entirely integrated technology stack is a key enabler of our strategy and business model. Interactions with our customers across our platform generate a trove of data, which in turn improves interactions with our customers across our platform.
AI Maya
AI Maya, our playful onboarding and customer experience bot, uses natural language to guide customers through an easy and fun process of joining Lemonade. Maya handles everything from collecting information and personalizing coverage to creating quotes and facilitating payments securely. By asking customers a limited number of high-impact questions, and adapting based on their responses, AI Maya is able to dramatically reduce onboarding times while still collecting and utilizing the data that is central to our continuous improvement.
AI Jim
AI Jim is our claims bot, and, as of December 31, 2022, 98% of the time, it is AI Jim that will take the first notice of loss from a Lemonade customer making a claim, paying the claimant or declining the claim without human intervention (and with zero claims overhead, known as loss adjustment expense, or LAE). AI Jim triages and assigns claims he is not authorized to settle, or ones where he identifies concerns, to human claims experts, analyzing each expert's specialty, qualifications, workload, and schedule to determine to whom to assign the claim. Even where human escalation is needed, AI Jim will have done much of the heavy lifting so our team can settle claims and support customers in their hour of need as quickly and smoothly as possible.
The claims process represents the most acute pain point in the insurance experience, and it is where animosity toward the industry is most commonly cultivated. Re-imagining claims for the benefit of the customer, by aligning interests and incentives and by removing friction, hassle, cost, and delays, is therefore a key driver of our leadership in customer satisfaction.
CX.AI
CX.AI is our bot platform built to understand and instantly resolve customer requests without human intervention. About 27% of all Lemonade customer inquiries are currently handled this way. Customers often require assistance pre- or post-purchase, ranging from coverage questions to making changes to their policy, such as adding a spouse, updating coverage amounts, changing payment methods, or adding newly purchased items. CX.AI uses Natural Language Processing to analyze and understand customers' requests, helping them perform a growing set of tasks.
The efficiency boost CX.AI delivers is exemplified by its impact on 'moving' tickets. Until December 2018, a large number of support tickets handled by our human CX (Customer Experience) team were requests related to customers moving to new apartments or homes. CX.AI understands what customers are saying, asks for the information it needs, and takes it from there: canceling the existing policy when the time is right, evaluating the risk of the new address, transferring all customized coverages to the new policy, pricing it, processing the payment, and sending the new policy to the customer by email. The process takes a few seconds.
Our customer-facing technologies, AI Maya, AI Jim, and CX.AI deliver a superior experience at a fraction of the cost, all the while collecting and utilizing far more data than their human counterparts. A similar construct powers the rest of the Company.
Our 'behind the scenes technology' is structured within three proprietary applications: Forensic Graph, Blender, and Cooper.
Forensic Graph
Forensic Graph utilizes the combined power of behavioral economics, big data, and AI to predict, deter, detect, and block fraud throughout the customer engagement. The FBI estimates that insurance fraud in the United States (excluding health insurance fraud) costs more than $40 billion per year in increased premiums. It is a complicated problem to solve for traditional insurers, mostly due to data paucity. Forensic Graph tracks untold signals and analyzes relationships between things which may appear trivial or invisible to humans, but in which our machine learning uncovers complex multivariate links that have helped us avoid millions of dollars' worth of potential losses.
Blender
Blender is a robust insurance management platform that we built with customer centricity and exponential efficiency in mind. This is a built-from-scratch, cutting edge backend system, designed as a single, cohesive, and streamlined management tool for our customer experience, underwriting, claims, growth, marketing, finance, and risk teams. When a claims experience specialist logs in to Blender, for example, they instantly see all claims assigned to them by AI Jim. Blender then provides them with instructions for next steps, and when possible, includes coverage determinations, and alerts of suspicious activity. Critically, they will also see an extraordinary amount of information about the users' behavior patterns and their claim, background information, risk indicators, insurance history, and much more. If a vendor is needed, for example, to assess the damage, all appropriate suppliers will pop up in Blender, and can be dispatched to the field, and paid, at the push of a button. Blender brings similar integrated, customer-centric, and focused workflows to the other Lemonade teams as well.
Cooper
Cooper is our internal bot (we like to think of him as our own Jarvis) who runs important parts of our Company. Cooper handles complex as well as repetitive tasks, from helping our customer experience team handle lengthy, manual processes such as processing paper checks, to automatically running tens of thousands of tests on each release of our software. Cooper continuously analyzes spectrometry imaging beamed from NASA's satellites, identifying wildfires in real time and blocking ads and sales in the affected areas; Cooper collates and formats materials for our regulatory filings; and he even handles most of our engineering task allocation, code deployment, Q&A, and more. Cooper makes our team dramatically more efficient and keeps evolving and learning with time.
Forensic Graph, Blender, and Cooper, together with AI Maya, AI Jim, and CX.AI, run atop our Customer Cortex. The Customer Cortex, like a central nervous system, is the place where all data about our customers is transmitted, continuously analyzed, and then used by all six applications.
Growth Opportunities
Acquire more customers
About 90% of our current home and renters customers said that they were not switching to Lemonade from another carrier. We are well positioned to grow our customer base by continuing to attract first time buyers, an underserved population replenishing every year.
Our delightful experience and competitive pricing also attract customers who switch from their existing carriers. Our bot automatically files the necessary paperwork to cancel a customer's old policy, removing what is typically a barrier to switching. As we continue to strengthen brand recognition and execute our marketing strategy, we will look to increase the number of customers migrating to the Lemonade platform.
Grow within our existing customer base
As our customers move up the economic ladder and through lifecycle events, their insurance needs evolve to higher value products: renters continuously acquire more property and frequently upgrade to successively larger homes. Growing households often need car, pet, and life insurance, and additional coverage. These progressions regularly trigger orders of magnitude jumps in insurance premiums, and within states that offer all of Lemonade’s “suite of products” - Renters, Home, Car, Pet, and Life - we are seeing more and more customers have multi Lemonade policies. For example in Illinois, the first state to have all of Lemonade’s suite of products for the 12-month period, the rate of “bundling”, that is, customers who went from a single-policy to a multi-policy, is growing quarter after quarter, increasing both premium and retention. We aim to provide an unmatched user experience in order to retain customers throughout their lifespan, expanding their lifetime value without incurring any incremental costs of acquisition.
Expand to new products
Our strategy of growing with our customers also lends itself to expanding into new lines of insurance, as lifecycle events trigger the need for additional insurance products.
Our regulatory framework, technology stack, and brand are all extensible to new lines of insurance, and we anticipate that these will contribute to our growth in the future. In just the last two years, we have added life, pet and car insurance to our growing portfolio of offerings, and expect to add additional coverage types over time.
Expand to new geographies
As of December 31, 2022, we are licensed to sell renters, homeowners, pet and/or car insurance policies in 50 states of the United States and Washington, D.C. We operate in 38 of those states and Washington, D.C., which collectively represents approximately 92% of the U.S. population. Our strong brand and unique business model drive rapid growth and allow us to quickly gain share in new markets. We also hold a pan-European license, enabling us to passport into and sell in 30 countries across Europe, and subject to the temporary permissions regime in the U.K.,and commenced operations in Germany in 2019, and in the Netherlands and France in 2020. In October, 2022, we began selling contents insurance in the United Kingdom (“UK”) on a cross border basis under the UK’s Temporary Permission Regime. We also registered two UK branches: (i) Lemonade Insurance N.V., UK
Branch and its affiliate (ii) Lemonade Agency B.V., UK Branch as part of its process to become a fully licensed insurance branch in the UK.
The Lemonade platform is inherently multilingual and agile by design, so that we can efficiently expand into new markets and new products both within the United States and internationally.
Our Product Offerings
Renters and Homeowners Insurance
We currently offer our products to renters and homeowners in the United States, contents and liability insurance in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom. The insurance we offer in the United States covers stolen or damaged property, and also covers personal liability, which protects our customers if they are responsible for an accident or damage to another person or their property. In a number of states, we also offer landlord insurance policies to condo and co-op owners who rent out their property less than five times a year.
The full Lemonade experience is available through our iOS and Android app, as well as through our website. Before a customer purchases one of our policies, we allow the customer to review a summary of their coverage and a sample policy. We also enable the customer to reconfigure their coverage and other policy settings, such as the deductible and start date. After payment via a credit or debit card, we instantly issue the customer their policy documents and send it to them via email. From start to finish, the entire process is completed digitally.
In the U.S., our products automatically cover all residents of a household who are related to the customer by marriage, blood, or adoption. In addition to the base coverage we offer for personal property, electronics, furniture, and clothing, our customers can purchase extra coverage to protect against accidental loss, damage, and theft, worldwide, of their jewelry, fine art, and other personal property.
Pet Insurance
We currently offer pet insurance that covers diagnostics, procedures, medication, accidents or illness. Even our basic pet insurance offering covers blood tests, urinalysis, X-rays, MRIs, lab work, and CT scans. We also offer two optional add-ons to the basic plan, a wellness package and an extended accident and illness package. These provide additional coverage for preventative care costs, including annual exams and vaccines, and recovery treatments, including physical therapy and hydrotherapy.
We believe our expansion into pet insurance will allow us to further achieve our long-term strategy of growing with our young customer base by offering new insurance experiences to customers as they progress in their lifecycles. As of December 31, 2022, about 72% of our pet insurance policies were sold to new customers, and about 5% of those have already added a renters or homeowners policy to their pet policy. Customers that bundle our insurance offerings typically save money. The remaining 28% or so of pet insurance policies were sold to existing customers, whose median premium per customer grew roughly 3.7x with little to no incremental customer acquisition costs.
Car
We launched car insurance in December 2021 in Illinois, and now offer it in a handful of states. Lemonade Car insurance covers car accidents, weather damage, theft and vandalism, damage from fire, trees, or animals, glass and windshield repair, liability for bodily injury and property damage, medical expenses, roadside assistance, and reimburses drivers for expenses relating to temporary transportation when a car is being repaired, subject to certain exceptions. For each added Lemonade Car customer, we plant trees based on drivers’ mileage to help offset carbon emissions, and our product was built for drivers with low mileage and environment-friendly cars.
In July 2022, we announced the completion of the acquisition of Metromile, a pay-per-mile car insurance provider. As part of the acquisition, we received a full-stack insurance entity with 49 state licenses plus the District of Columbia, and precision data from 500 million car trips.
Life
Lemonade also provides life insurance product through an arrangement with a third-party administrator (“TPA”) which operates as an insurance agent and TPA for a third-party life and health insurance company. With Lemonade’s term life insurance offering, individuals age 18 to 60 can apply online for up to $1.5 million in coverage, for terms of 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years, without a medical exam or a lab test. Applicants simply answer some basic questions about their health to apply for coverage. With term life offered by Lemonade, policyholders pay a fixed annual premium for the entire term of the policy.
Giveback Feature
Giveback is a distinctive feature, whereby each year we aim to donate leftover money to causes our customers care about. After our customers purchase a policy, we ask them to select, from a pre-vetted list, a charitable cause to support with the residual premiums from their policy. Behind the scenes, customers who select the same charitable cause are classified as members of the same "cohort." Once a year we look at the loss ratio of each cohort, and provided that we pass the financial ratio tests required by our regulators, we aim to donate the funds remaining, if any, to the charitable cause selected by that cohort. Cohorts with a loss ratio above 40% usually will not receive a Giveback.
The Giveback is paid only if payment is authorized by our board of directors in its sole discretion and consistent with its duty of care. See "Risk Factors — We could be forced to modify or eliminate our Giveback, which could undermine our business model and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition." Our 2022 Giveback for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2022 amounted to approximately 1% of earned premiums. We calculate our annual Giveback on each anniversary of our primary reinsurance contract. The Giveback is not a contractual obligation to any customer or to any cause, and customers may not take a tax deduction related to the donations.
We have informed, and intend to continue to inform, our customers of the amount donated to their selected nonprofit during each Giveback on an annual basis, details of which follow:
| | | | | | | | |
Giveback Year | Number of Nonprofit Organizations | Amount |
2022 | 59 | $ | 1,873,588 | |
2021 | 65 | $ | 2,303,381 | |
2020 | 34 | $ | 1,128,109 | |
2019 | 26 | $ | 631,540 | |
2018 | 15 | $ | 162,135 | |
| | |
Selected nonprofit organizations chosen by customers in 2022 included: Charity Water, Malala Fund, Habitat for Humanity, and many others. Although new and untested, we believe that donating a portion of the money left over after paying claims to nonprofits will discourage fraud and promote greater trust between us and our customers.
Our Vertically-Integrated Platform
Sales and Marketing
Our goal is to increase brand awareness and the number of customers migrating to our platform by utilizing a number of marketing channels to aid our direct-to-consumer sales model. Our primary channel of advertisement is the internet, where we promote our ads and services through various media and social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. We also use the data generated in customer support interactions to constantly refine and improve our marketing campaigns. We conduct drip campaigns via email to follow up with those who have inquired about us or started the on-boarding process. Additionally, we enter into agreements with parties who have access to potential customers, including insurance agencies, apartment building owners, and property management companies.
Underwriting
Our digital platform enables us to ask fewer questions of our customers but derive many times more data points from each customer interaction than our competitors. To date we have collected over 8.2 billion data entries, a trove that grows by the minute. Applying machine learning to these data allows us to identify predictive patterns, and these inform our underwriting. Our underwriting process involves collecting this information, classifying and evaluating each individual risk exposure, assessing the impact of the risk on our existing portfolio, and pricing the risk accordingly. When we launched, and had no data of our own, pricing and underwriting were done using easily obtainable industry information. Due to the limitations of these data, customers appeared relatively undifferentiated. As we collected more data, we found that groups our competitors viewed as monolithic were actually made up of predictable sub-groups with over 600% variation in their likelihood to file a claim.
Claims Process
Powered and driven by our technology, our claims process is conducted via our digital platform, which includes our iOS and Android mobile apps. Claims can be substantiated with receipts, notes of where and when the item was purchased, and in certain cases, police reports. We also ask the customer to record a video explaining their claim to enhance the claim review process. After the customer completes a claim report on our mobile app, the customer is asked to enter bank account information. If the claim is approved, a payment is issued and deposited directly into the customer's account. Claims are commonly paid or declined through our claims-bot, AI Jim, within seconds.
While a meaningful portion of simple theft claims are paid almost instantly, in many cases the incident is also reviewed by a human before the claim is approved, and certain property damage claims or liability claims may take longer to settle. In an event that requires immediate assistance or temporary housing as a result of fire, ongoing water damage, or any other structural damage that leaves the customer's home exposed, we contact the customer to assess the situation and provide emergency services, such as water or fire damage cleanup, temporary housing, or a designated specialist.
Reinsurance
Insurance often produces businesses with highly recurring revenue streams, and hence predictable top lines, but with significant bottom-line volatility, as profits can literally fluctuate with the weather. Earthquakes, hailstorms, wildfires and hurricanes strike with caprice, and can push an otherwise profitable business deep into the red with little or no warning.
The first-order consequence of this uncertainty is that insurers often see unwelcome swings in their results. The second-order consequence is that regulators require insurers to keep significant reserves to absorb these swings, making them capital intensive. In defiance of these industry norms, we set out to architect our business to be at once capital-light and possessed of predictable and growing gross margin. Through judicious use of "reinsurance," we believe we have largely achieved these goals.
Reinsurance is a financial instrument under which one insurer, the "reinsurer," agrees to cover a portion of the claims of another insurer, the "primary insurer," in return for a portion of their premiums. While this description characterizes all reinsurance, implementations come in different flavors, each with its own costs and benefits. We have entered into a range of reinsurance agreements, differing in both duration and terms, which combine, we believe, to deliver maximum capital efficiency, while optimizing our gross margin for both stability and size.
Proportional Reinsurance: Maximize Capital Efficiency
The low cost of capital for reinsurance companies creates an opportunity to share premiums and maintain our gross margin while dramatically reducing our capital requirements through a structure called "proportional reinsurance" (also known as "quota share reinsurance"). We currently have proportional reinsurance covering a significant proportion of our business (the "Proportional Reinsurance Contracts"). Under the Proportional Reinsurance Contracts, which span all of our products and geographies, we transfer, or "cede, a fixed share of our premiums to our reinsurers. In exchange, these reinsurers pay us a "ceding commission" of up to 25% for every dollar ceded, in addition to funding all of the corresponding claims. This arrangement mirrors our fixed fee, and hence shields our gross margin from the volatility of claims, while boosting our capital efficiency dramatically.
Under U.S. and E.U. regulatory laws, insurance companies are required to set aside "surplus capital" in accordance with various formulae. These requirements tend to be more onerous for younger companies experiencing rapid growth, such that without reinsurance we would need to reserve as much as 50 cents for every dollar of premiums sold. Our proportional reinsurance structure shifts most of that surplus capital requirement to the reinsurer, reducing these capital requirements significantly.
Non-Proportional Reinsurance: Optimize Gross Margin
As described above, our Proportional Reinsurance Contracts provide that we cede a significant portion of our premiums to our reinsurers, pushing our capital efficiency to near maximized levels. We have opted to manage the remaining portion of our business with alternative forms of reinsurance, with a view to maximizing profitability.
These two remaining goals live in tension with one another: leaving zero "wiggle room" around our fixed fee would guarantee its stability, but would preclude our benefiting from our improving loss ratio. Conversely, any room for improved profitability would also introduce additional volatility into our business.
To balance our desire for both growing and stable gross margin, we set out to structure our remaining reinsurance such that variability in our gross margin will be largely contained, though not eliminated entirely. We believe we have achieved this through a combination of reinsurance structures known as "per risk reinsurance" and "facultative reinsurance" (the "Non-Proportional Reinsurance Contracts"). Together, these contracts reduce the maximum amount we would need to pay for any one claim.
Our business is exposed to the risk of severe weather conditions and other catastrophes which are inherently unpredictable. To reduce this risk, we also purchase one year property catastrophe excess protection as well as reinsurance to protect us from the peril of earthquake.
We believe our reinsurance structure achieves important goals: making us capital-light, buffering our gross margin from the vicissitudes of claims, and leaving room for our gross margin to grow.
Duration
Our goal of maximizing predictability of our results, while growing gross margin over time, led us to vary not only the terms of our reinsurance agreements, but their term, too.
The Proportional Reinsurance Contracts are issued by a consortium of five reinsurers, including Hannover Ruck SE, Lloyd’s Underwriter Syndicate No. 1084 CSL, MAPFRE Re (Spain), and Swiss Re America (US), each holding an ‘A’ or better rating from A.M. Best, and each holding a share of the agreement’s commitments. Our Non-Proportional Reinsurance Contracts are issued by a collection of reinsurers, each holding an ‘A’ or better rating from A.M. Best, have a one-year term that expired on June 30, 2022.
All told, approximately half of our book is reinsured on a three-year term through June 30, 2023, with the remainder coming up for renewal and renegotiation on an annual basis. We believe that staggering the terms this way provides an appropriate balance between maximizing predictability, and enabling us to capture more margin over time.
Investments
Our portfolio of investable assets is primarily held in cash, money market funds, and fixed income securities which includes U.S. government and government agencies obligations, corporate debt securities and asset-backed securities with relatively short durations. We manage the portfolio in accordance with the investment policies and guidelines approved by the board of directors.
We have designed our investment policy and objectives to provide a balance between current yield, conservation of capital, and liquidity requirements of our operations setting guidelines that provide for a well-diversified investment portfolio that is compliant with insurance regulations applicable to the states in which we operate. Furthermore, our investment policy considers our focus on ESG and prohibits investments in areas such as oil and gas, coal, tobacco, controversial weapons, and non-compliance with the United Nations Global Compact. The policy, which may change from time to time, is approved by the board of directors and is reviewed on a regular basis in order to ensure that the policy evolves in response to changes in the financial markets. See "Note 4 —
Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report.
Competition
The homeowners, pet, car and, to a lesser extent, the renters insurance industries in which we operate are highly competitive. While we believe we are well positioned to execute our business model and reinvent insurance, we face significant competition from traditional insurance companies such as Allstate, Farmers, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, GEICO, Progressive and Travelers. Although we are tapping into markets that our competitors have struggled to reach, the incumbent insurance companies are larger than us and have significant competitive advantages over us, including increased name recognition, higher financial ratings, greater resources, additional access to capital and more types of insurance coverage to offer, such as car, health and life insurance, than we currently do. In particular, unlike us, many of these competitors offer consumers the ability to purchase homeowners and multiple other types of insurance products and "bundle" them together, in certain circumstances, include an umbrella liability policy for additional coverage at competitive prices. Moreover, as we expand into new lines of business and offer additional products beyond renters and homeowners insurance, pet and car insurance, we face intense competition from traditional insurance companies that are already established in such markets. Competitors in the pet insurance space include companies such as Nationwide, Embrace, and Trupanion. Competitors in the car insurance space include companies such as Progressive, GEICO and Allstate.
We also compete with new market entrants. Competition is based on many factors, including the reputation and experience of the insurer, coverages offered, pricing and other terms and conditions, customer service, relationships with brokers and agents (including ease of doing business, service provided, and commission rates paid), size, and financial strength ratings, among other considerations. We believe we compete favorably across many of these factors, and have developed a digital platform and business model based on artificial intelligence and behavioral economics that we believe will be difficult for incumbent insurance providers to emulate.
Intellectual Property
The protection of our technology and intellectual property is an important aspect of our business. We intend to rely upon a combination of trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, confidentiality procedures, contractual commitments, and other legal rights to establish and protect our intellectual property. We generally enter into confidentiality agreements and invention of work product assignment agreements with our employees and consultants to control access to, and clarify ownership of, our proprietary information.
As of December 31, 2022, we have 5 issued patents and 2 pending patent applications in the United States. The issued patents generally related to determining the route and parking location of a vehicle, recording trip data associated with a vehicle, and estimating the usage of a vehicle based on refueling events. The issued patents are expected to expire between September 1, 2035 and January 11, 2036. We do not own any foreign patents and do not have any foreign patent applications pending. As of December 31, 2022, we hold 120 foreign registered trademarks and 4 registered trademarks in the United States, including the Lemonade mark, have 16 foreign trademark applications pending and no U.S. trademark applications pending, and hold three copyrights in the United States, covering certain videos, texts, photographs, and artwork displayed on our mobile app and website. We continually review our development efforts to assess the existence and patentability of new intellectual property.
Intellectual property laws, procedures, and restrictions provide only limited protection and any of our intellectual property rights may be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed, or misappropriated. Further, the laws of certain countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and, therefore, in certain jurisdictions, we may be unable to protect our proprietary technology.
Certified B Corp Status
While not required by Delaware law or the terms of our certificate of incorporation, we have been designated as a Certified B Corp. The term "Certified B Corp" does not refer to a particular form of legal entity, but instead refers to companies that are certified by B Lab, an independent nonprofit organization, as meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
The first step in becoming a Certified B Corp is completing a comprehensive and objective assessment of a business's positive impact on society and the environment. The assessment varies depending on the company's size (number of employees), and sector. The standards in the assessment are created and revised by an independent governing body that determines eligibility to be a Certified B Corp.
By completing a set of over 200 questions that reflect impact indicators, best practices, and outcomes, a company receives a composite score on a 200-point scale representative of its overall impact on its employees, customers, communities, and the environment. Representative indicators in the assessment range from payment above a living wage, employee benefits, charitable giving/community service, and use of renewable energy.
Recognition as a Certified B Corp currently requires that a company achieve a reviewed assessment score of at least 80. The review process includes a phone review and a random selection of indicators for purposes of verifying documentation. The assessment also includes a corporate structure review and a disclosure questionnaire, including certain practices, fines, and sanctions related to the company or its partners.
Our certification also required us to adopt the public benefit corporation structure, a step we have already completed. Once certified, every Certified B Corp must make its assessment score transparent on the independent non-profit organization's website. Acceptance as a Certified B Corp and continued certification is at the sole discretion of the independent nonprofit organization.
Human Capital Resources
Employees
As of December 31, 2022, we had 1,367 employees, 951 of whom were based in the United States and the rest of whom were based outside of the United States, primarily in Israel and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, certain employees are subject to a collective agreement between the Dutch Association of Insurers and various trade unions. The collective agreement covers wages and terms and conditions of employment. Participation in the collective agreement is mandatory for members of the Dutch Association of Insurers, a leading association of private insurance companies operating in the Netherlands. Beyond this, to our knowledge, none of our employees are represented by a labor union. We consider our relationships with our employees to be good and have not experienced any interruptions of operations due to labor disagreements.
As of December 31, 2022, and based on public information from five competing insurance companies in the United States, we estimate that the number of customers per employee for those companies ranges from approximately 150 to approximately 450 customers per employee. We base this estimate on publicly available information, which we have adjusted for comparability. The calculation of "employees" includes insurance agents and brokers because they are a significant cost component for other insurance companies. In comparison to these competitors, our number of customers per employee was approximately 1,300 as of December 31, 2022.
Culture and Values
Our status as a Certified B Corp and our commitment to charitable giving, in particular our Giveback program distinguishes us from our competitors, with the goal of building a trusting relationship between us, our employees, and our customers. We value the power of creativity and encourage and support the sharing of ideas to enhance our business model. Like the industry in which we operate, we understand the importance and value of a community pooling its resources together for the public good. We value inclusivity, respecting differences, and seamless teamwork in every facet of our business.
In 2020, we issued 500,000 shares of common stock as the initial endowment of the Lemonade Foundation, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization established under Arizona law. By contributing approximately 1% of our common stock to the Lemonade Foundation, we hope to promote charitable giving and other community-centric activities with a nexus to our community.
In addition, the Foundation recently launched a first of its kind blockchain based insurance product for the world’s most vulnerable farmers. The product was built with a goal of protecting subsistence farmers against the effects of climate change. Thousands of families in Kenya have already been protected by this product, and the Foundation expects to continue scaling this product in the coming months. The product was launched as part of the Lemonade Foundation Crypto Climate Coalition - in cooperation with a number of strategic partners: Hannover Re, Pula, Chainlink, Avalanche, Etherisc and DAOstack.
Diversity
We understand that strength lies in the diversity of our employees and drives the innovation behind our product. We encourage employees to bring their lived experiences, and personal strengths, to develop new ideas, improve customer experience and shape our brand. We engage with employees for ideas of nonprofits to partner with, or resources to learn more about a social issue, and their candid (and anonymous, should they choose) feedback about our workplace culture and environment. In the wake of the social justice movements, our employees founded in 2020 an internal anti-racism education group, and continued to share resources, promote racial equity, and develop anti-bias training.
Health, Safety and Wellness
As a B Corp, it is part of our legal mission to advance the health, well-being and equity of employees. To that end, employees have access to health and wellness programs, and healthcare plans.
Geographic Scope of Business
In the United States, as of December 31, 2022, Lemonade Insurance Company (“LIC”) and Metromile Insurance Company (“MIC”) are licensed to sell our insurance products in the following states:
We also currently hold a pan-European license, which enables us to sell in 30 countries across Europe, and subject to the temporary permissions regime in the U.K. We commenced operating in Germany in 2019, in the Netherlands and France in 2020, and in the U.K. in 2022.
Seasonality
For information regarding the seasonality of our business, please refer to Part II, Item 7 “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of this Annual Report.
Regulation of our Business
Insurance Regulation
Certain of our U.S. insurance subsidiaries are regulated by insurance regulatory authorities in the states in which we operate. State insurance laws and regulations generally are designed to protect the interests of customers, consumers, and claimants rather than stockholders or other investors. State regulation generally have broad administrative power with respect to all aspects of the insurance business. The regulatory requirements and restrictions include, among others, the following:
•approval of policy forms and premium rates;
•approval for intercompany service agreements;
•advertising, marketing, and trade practices; and
•restrictions on the ability of our regulated insurance subsidiaries to pay dividends to us or enter into certain related party transactions
Regulation of insurance companies constantly changes as governmental agencies and legislatures react to real or perceived issues. Recently, state insurance regulators have been scrutinizing the industry’s practices with respect to the collection and uses of consumer data.
Required Licensing
Our regulated U.S. insurance subsidiaries are domiciled and admitted in the states of New York and Delaware. Under a provision of the California Insurance Code, MIC is deemed “commercially domiciled” in California, meaning that the California Department of Insurance is entitled to regulate certain aspects of MIC’s business as if it were actually domiciled in California.
LIC, MIC, Lemonade Insurance Agency, LLC, Lemonade Life Insurance Agency, LLC, Lemonade E&S Insurance Agency, LLC and Metromile Insurance Services LLC must apply for and maintain licenses to provide and sell insurance in those jurisdictions in which they transact insurance businesses.
Our insurance company and insurance producer subsidiaries are required to adhere to myriad laws and regulatory requirements. The insurance regulators in the states in which our subsidiaries do the business of insurance are empowered to conduct on-site visits and examine the financial affairs and market conduct practices of those entities. Insurance regulators have broad administrative powers to impose monetary penalties and/or restrict or revoke licenses to transact business for violations of applicable laws and regulations.
Restrictions on Paying Dividends
We are a holding company that transacts a majority of our business through operating subsidiaries. Consequently, our ability to pay dividends to stockholders and meet our debt payment obligations is largely dependent on dividends and other distributions from our subsidiaries. Applicable insurance laws restrict the ability of our regulated insurance subsidiaries to declare stockholder dividends. Applicable insurance regulators require insurance companies to maintain specified levels of statutory capital and surplus.
Insurance regulators have broad powers to prevent reduction of statutory surplus to inadequate levels, and there is no assurance that dividends of the maximum amounts calculated under any applicable formula would be permitted to be made by our insurance subsidiaries. State insurance regulatory authorities that have jurisdiction over the payment of dividends by our regulated insurance subsidiaries may in the future adopt statutory provisions more restrictive than those currently in effect.
Investment Regulation
LIC is subject to New York’s insurance laws and MIC is subject to Delaware and California’s laws regarding the composition of their investments. Those laws generally require diversification of their investment portfolios and limits on the amount of their investments in certain categories. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations would cause non-conforming investments to be treated as non-admitted assets for purposes of measuring statutory surplus and, in some instances, would require those companies to sell those investments.
Licensing of Our Employees and Adjusters
In most states in which we operate, insurance claims adjusters are required to be licensed and some must fulfill annual continuing education requirements. In most instances, our employees who are negotiating coverage terms are underwriters and are not required to be licensed agents. As of December 31, 2022, 365 employees were required to maintain and did maintain requisite licenses for these activities in most states in which we operate.
Enterprise Risk, Cybersecurity, and Other Recent Developments
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) has engaged in a concerted effort to strengthen the ability of U.S. state insurance regulators to monitor U.S. insurance holding company groups. Among other things, the NAIC’s model, when adopted, requires the ultimate controlling person of an insurance company to submit an annual enterprise risk management report that describes the risk that an activity, circumstance, event, or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer will, if not remedied promptly, be likely to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole. Recently, the NAIC has developed model laws requiring annual reports concerning the nature of corporate governance within an insurance holding company.
In 2012, the NAIC adopted the Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (“ORSA”) Model Act (the “ORSA Model Act”) to require domestic insurers to maintain a risk management framework and establishes a legal requirement for domestic insurers to conduct an ORSA in accordance with the NAIC’s ORSA Guidance Manual. The ORSA Model Act provides that domestic insurers, or their insurance group, must regularly conduct an ORSA consistent with a process comparable to the ORSA Guidance Manual process. The ORSA Model Act also provides that, no more than once a year, an insurer’s domiciliary regulator may request that an insurer submit an ORSA summary report, or any combination of reports that together contain the information described in the ORSA Guidance Manual, with respect to the insurer and the insurance group of which it is a member. When the ORSA Model Act is adopted by a particular state, it imposes more extensive filing requirements on parents and affiliates of domestic insurers. Delaware has adopted its version of the ORSA Model Act and New York has implemented portions of the ORSA Model Act.
In the course of our business, we collect and maintain confidential and personal information. As a result, we are subject to U.S. federal and state privacy and data security laws and regulations that, among other things, require that we institute and maintain certain policies and procedures to safeguard this information from improper use or disclosure. For example, in 2017, the NYDFS adopted a broad cybersecurity regulation that requires financial services institutions to, among other things, implement and maintain a cybersecurity program and a cybersecurity policy that will be monitored and tested periodically, develop controls and technology standards for data protection, meet minimum standards in response to any cybersecurity breach and annually certify their compliance with the regulation. Additionally, in 2017 the NAIC adopted the Insurance Data Security Model Law, which established standards for data security and for the investigation and notification of insurance commissioners of cybersecurity events involving unauthorized access to, or the misuse of, certain nonpublic information. A number of states have enacted the Insurance Data Security Model Law or similar laws, and we expect more states to follow.
California has enacted legislation restricting the use of automated systems to communicate with people online. California enacted a statute making it unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate with another person in California online with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction. The statute provides that a person using a bot will not be liable under the statute if the person discloses that it is a bot. See “Risk Factors — Risks Relating to Our Business — New legislation or legal requirements may affect how we communicate with our customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business model, financial condition, and results of operations.”
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (E.U.) 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) applies to our activities to the extent that those activities take place in the context of our establishments in the European Union and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, the “U.K. GDPR”) applies to our activities to the extent that those activities take place in the context of our establishments in the U.K.. In addition, the GDPR/U.K. GDPR may apply to our activities that involve the processing of personal data of individuals in the European Union or U.K. to whom we offer our products or services. The GDPR/U.K. GDPR could also apply to our business if we were to monitor the activities of individuals in the European Union or U.K.. As we expand into Europe or U.K., the compliance obligations under the GDPR/U.K. GDPR (as set out above) will become more significant. See “Risk Factors — Risks Relating to Our Business — We may face particular privacy, data security, and data protection risks as we continue to expand into Europe or U.K. in connection with the GDPR/U.K. GDPR and other data protection regulations.”
Federal and State Legislative and Regulatory Changes
A number of federal laws affect and apply to the insurance industry, including various privacy laws, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), and the economic and trade sanctions implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. OFAC maintains and enforces economic sanctions against certain foreign countries and groups and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in certain transactions with certain persons or entities. OFAC has imposed civil penalties on persons, including insurance and reinsurance companies, arising from violations of its economic sanctions program.
Credit for Reinsurance
State insurance laws permit U.S. insurance companies, as ceding insurers, to take financial statement credit for reinsurance that is ceded, so long as the assuming reinsurer satisfies the state’s credit for reinsurance laws. There are several different ways in which the credit for reinsurance laws may be satisfied by an assuming reinsurer, including being licensed in the state, being accredited in the state, or maintaining certain types of qualifying collateral. We ensure that LIC and MIC are able to take full financial statement credit for their reinsurance.
Insolvency Funds and Associations, Mandatory Pools, and Insurance Facilities
Most states require admitted property and casualty insurance companies to become members of insolvency funds or associations which generally protect customers against the insolvency of the admitted insurance companies. Members of the fund or association must contribute to the payment of certain claims made against insolvent insurance companies through annual assessments. The annual assessments required in any one year will vary from state to state, and are subject to various maximum assessments per line of insurance.
Risk-Based Capital
Risk-based capital laws are designed to assess the minimum amount of capital that an insurance company needs to support its overall business operations and to ensure that it has an acceptably low expectation of becoming financially impaired. State insurance regulators use risk-based capital to set capital requirements, considering the size and degree of risk taken by the insurer and taking into account various risk factors including asset risk, credit risk, underwriting risk, and interest rate risk. As the ratio of an insurer’s total adjusted capital and surplus decreases relative to its risk-based capital, the risk-based capital laws provide for increasing levels of regulatory intervention culminating with mandatory control of the operations of the insurer by the domiciliary insurance department at the so-called mandatory control level. Our regulators in New York, Delaware and California require annual reporting to confirm that LIC and MIC hold in excess of the minimum amount of risk-based capital necessary for their operations. Insurers falling below a calculated threshold may be subject to varying degrees of regulatory action. Failure to maintain risk-based capital at the required levels could adversely affect the ability of LIC and MIC to maintain the regulatory approvals necessary to conduct their businesses. As of December 31, 2022, LIC maintained a risk-based capital level of 376% and MIC maintained a risk-based capital level of 440%.
IRIS Ratios
The NAIC Insurance Regulatory Information System (“IRIS”) is a collection of analytical tools designed to provide state insurance regulators with an integrated approach to screening and analyzing the financial condition of insurance companies operating in their respective states. IRIS consists of two phases: statistical and analytical. In the statistical phase, the NAIC database generates key financial ratio results based on financial information obtained from insurers’ annual statutory statements. The statistical phase highlights those insurers that merit the highest priority in the allocation of the state insurance regulators’ resources. The ratios are not, in themselves, indicative of adverse financial conditions. The analytical phase is a review of the annual statements, financial ratios, and other automated solvency tools. An insurance company may fall out of the usual range for one or more ratios for any number of reasons and a ratio falling outside the prescribed "usual range" is not considered a failing result. Rather, unusual values are viewed as part of the regulatory early monitoring system. The primary goal of the analytical phase is to identify companies that appear to require immediate regulatory attention.
Statutory Accounting Principles
Statutory accounting principles (“SAP”) is a basis of accounting developed by U.S. insurance regulators to monitor and regulate the solvency of insurance companies. In developing SAP, insurance regulators were primarily concerned with evaluating an insurer’s ability to pay all its current and future obligations to customers. As a result, statutory accounting focuses on conservatively valuing the assets and liabilities of insurers, generally in accordance with standards specified by the insurer’s domiciliary jurisdiction. Uniform statutory accounting practices are established by the NAIC and generally adopted by regulators in the various U.S. jurisdictions. These accounting principles and related regulations determine, among other things, the amounts our regulated insurance subsidiaries may pay to us as dividends and differ somewhat from U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”), which are designed to measure a business on a going-concern basis. GAAP gives consideration to matching of revenue and expenses and, as a result, certain expenses are capitalized when incurred and then amortized over the life of the associated policies. The valuation of assets and liabilities under GAAP is based in part on best estimate assumptions made by the insurer. Stockholders’ equity represents both amounts currently available and amounts expected to emerge over the life of the business. As a result, the values for assets, liabilities, and equity reflected in financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP may be different from those reflected in financial statements prepared under SAP.
Rate Regulation
Nearly all states have insurance laws requiring personal property and casualty insurers to file rating plans, policy or coverage forms, and other information with the state’s regulatory authority. In many cases, such rating plans, policy forms, or both must be approved prior to use.
The speed with which an insurer can change rates in response to competition or increasing costs depends, in part, on whether the rating laws are (i) prior approval, (ii) file-and-use, or (iii) use-and-file laws. In states having prior approval laws, the regulator must approve a rate before the insurer may use it. In states having file-and-use laws, the insurer does not have to wait for the regulator’s approval to use a rate, but the rate must be filed with the regulatory authority prior to being used. A use-and-file law requires an insurer to file rates within a certain period of time after the insurer begins using them. Eighteen states, including California and New York, have prior approval laws. Under all three types of rating laws, the regulator has the authority to disapprove a rate filing.
An insurer’s ability to adjust its rates in response to competition or to changing costs is dependent on an insurer’s ability to demonstrate to the regulator that its rates or proposed rating plan meets the requirements of the rating laws. In those states that significantly restrict an insurer’s discretion in selecting the business that it wants to underwrite, an insurer can manage its risk of loss by charging a rate that reflects the cost and expense of providing the insurance. In those states that significantly restrict an insurer’s ability to charge a rate that reflects the cost and expense of providing the insurance, the insurer can manage its risk of loss by being more selective in the type of business it underwrites. When a state significantly restricts both underwriting and pricing, it becomes more difficult for an insurer to maintain its profitability.
From time to time, the personal lines insurance industry comes under pressure from state regulators, legislators, and special-interest groups to reduce, freeze, or set rates at levels that do not correspond with our analysis of underlying costs and expenses. We expect this kind of pressure to persist. State regulators may interpret existing law or rely on future legislation or regulations to impose new restrictions that adversely affect profitability or growth. We cannot predict the impact on our business of possible future legislative and regulatory measures regarding insurance rates.
European Regulation
Our European insurance entities consist of Lemonade Insurance N.V., Lemonade Agency B.V. and Lemonade B.V. Lemonade Insurance N.V. is a licensed non-life insurer established in the Netherlands and is subject to key financial rules and regulations including the Second European Solvency Directive 2009/138/EC (as amended, the “Solvency II Directive”); Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/35 (as amended, the “Delegated Regulation”, together with the Solvency II Directive referred to as the “Solvency II Regulations”); the implementing technical standards and regulatory technical standards issued by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”); the European Insurance Distribution Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/97, “IDD”); the Dutch Financial Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht, “DFSA”) and the lower rules and regulations promulgated thereunder; the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union ("IFRS-EU"); and national regulations, as well as local conduct of business requirements, in each of the jurisdictions in which it operates. Currently, the European Commission is preparing for a review of the Solvency II Directive. Lemonade Agency B.V. is subject to the IDD, the DFSA and national regulations, as well as local business conduct requirements, in each of the jurisdictions in which it operates. Lemonade B.V. is an insurance holding company within the meaning of article 212 of the Solvency II Directive, as implemented in article 1:1 DFSA.
The Solvency II Regulations
The Solvency II Directive, as implemented in the DFSA and other national regulations, such as the German Insurance Supervisory Act (Versicherungsaufsichtsgesetz), prescribes uniform rules for insurers and their activities and services. More specifically, the Solvency II Directive provides rules and regulations relating to, inter alia, Lemonade Insurance N.V.’s authorization requirements (including the European “passport” regime), its minimum own funds and solvency and its governance. Governance requirements include the need to ensure sound business operations, implement mandatory key functions (being Actuarial, Compliance, Internal Audit and Risk) and requirements relating to Lemonade Insurance N.V.’s Management Board members, Supervisory Board Members and other key personnel. The Delegated Regulation is promulgated under the Solvency II Directive and provides detailed requirements relating to some of the Solvency II Directive’s broader requirements.
IDD and other conduct of business rules
The IDD provides a harmonized regime for insurance distribution activities. It regulates the way insurance products are designed and sold both by insurance intermediaries (e.g. Lemonade Agency B.V.) and directly by insurance undertakings (e.g. Lemonade Insurance N.V.). The rules and regulations set out in the IDD have been implemented in the DFSA. The provisions set out in the IDD mainly relate to standards of product disclosure, promotional materials and product governance and oversight. Local regulations and conduct of business rules implemented in each of the European member states in which both Lemonade Agency B.V. and Lemonade Insurance N.V. do business supplement the requirements set out in the IDD.
Financial and other Regulators
Lemonade Insurance N.V. is subject to primary supervision by the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, “DNB”) as the supervisory authority of its home member state. In addition, it is subject to supervision by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, “AFM”). The AFM is the regulator tasked with conduct supervision relating to Lemonade Insurance N.V.’s Dutch activities. The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, “BaFin”), as the supervisory authority of a host member state. BaFin is the competent regulator tasked with the supervision of Lemonade Insurance N.V.’s compliance with German regulations and conduct requirements. The French Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, "ACPR", which is charged with preserving the stability of the financial system and protecting the customers, insurance policyholders, members and beneficiaries of the persons that it supervises, and Organisme pour le Registre des Intermédiaires en Assurance, "ORIAS", an association under the supervision of the Treasury
Department in France and in charge of approving insurance intermediaries operating on the French market; the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) in charge of prudentially regulating and supervising financial services firms operating in the UK; the British Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), whose role includes protecting consumers, keeping the industry stable, and promoting healthy competition between financial service providers.
Lemonade Agency B.V. is subject to supervision by the AFM. Lemonade B.V. as parent and Lemonade Insurance N.V. as subsidiary is an E.U. sub-group within the meaning of Article 213(2)(b) of Solvency II, as implemented in article 3:285 (2) DFSA. Lemonade B.V. is subject to group supervision by DNB under the Solvency II Directive. The relevant EU supervisory body for insurers, EIOPA, has limited supervisory powers in the Netherlands, however it plays an important role in drafting and issuing technical standards and preparing guidance relating to various European directives and regulations. EIOPA aims to accomplish efficient and harmonized financial supervision across the European Union.
Lemonade Agency B.V. is subject to supervision by the AFM. Lemonade B.V. as parent and Lemonade Insurance N.V. as subsidiary is an E.U. sub-group within the meaning of Article 213(2)(b) of Solvency II, as implemented in article 3:285 (2) DFSA. Lemonade B.V. is subject to group supervision by DNB under the Solvency II Directive. The relevant EU supervisory body for insurers, EIOPA, has limited supervisory powers in the Netherlands, however it plays an important role in drafting and issuing technical standards and preparing guidance relating to various European directives and regulations. EIOPA aims to accomplish efficient and harmonized financial supervision across the European Union.
DNB and AFM employ a risk-based and proportionate approach to supervision, comprising a firm systemic framework, which focuses on the continuous assessment of how firms manage the risks they create and identifying the root causes of risk. DNB regularly pro-actively contacts insurers to discuss matters of strategy, day-to-day operations and the current (and expected future) financial standing of the undertaking, in order to assess what parts of a regulated undertaking (if any) could pose (systemic) risk. In addition, DNB monitors operations and business through monthly updates, the submission of Quantitative Reporting Templates, by reviewing annual reports, approving prospective Management Board and Supervisory Board members prior to their appointment and through scheduled and unannounced audits.
DNB also regulates the acquisition and increase of control over certain authorized firms, such as insurers. Under the DFSA, any person intending to acquire control of, or increase (or decrease) control over, an insurer must first obtain the consent of the DNB. In considering whether to grant or withhold its approval for the acquisition of control, DNB must be satisfied that the acquirer is a fit and proper person and that the interests of consumers would not be threatened by their acquisition of, or increase in, control. A person will be treated as increasing (or decreasing) their control over an insurer if the level of their percentage of (indirect) shareholding or voting power in the insurer crosses the 10, 20, 33, 50 percent or 100 percent threshold.
Both Lemonade Insurance N.V. and Lemonade Agency B.V. operate in the UK subject to the temporary permissions regime in accordance with which certain European Economic Area based firms may continue to operate in the UK for a limited period following the UK’s departure from the European Union. See Required Licensing section below for a description.
Enforcement
DNB and AFM expect firms to avoid actions that jeopardize compliance with their statutory objectives and applicable rules and regulations and have extensive powers to intervene in the affairs of a regulated firm. When DNB is concerned that an insurer may present a risk, this may lead to negative consequences, including the requirement to maintain a higher level of regulatory capital (via capital “add-ons” under the Solvency II Directive) to match the higher perceived risks and enforcement action where the risks identified breach applicable rules and regulations. In case of a breach of our license requirements or obligations arising from the applicable rules and regulations, although both DNB and AFM must apply the principle of proportionality in all of their actions, the regulators have a large amount of discretion in determining what measures to impose (if any) in order to address, remedy, or sanction the breach. DNB and the AFM have a large amount of enforcement tools at their disposal to sanction breaches of applicable rules and regulations, including (public) formal warnings, orders to adopt a certain course of conduct, incremental penalties, and administrative fines. In addition, breaches may lead to a revocation of an undertaking license and, in the case of insurers, where the breach relates to material prudential shortcomings,
DNB may impose emergency measures (including the appointment of an administrator or the imposition of measures aimed at winding-up the undertaking).
Required Licensing
Our subsidiary Lemonade Insurance N.V. is licensed and supervised by the insurance supervision division of DNB as a Solvency II non-life insurance company. DNB, as the supervisory authority of its home member state, has permitted us to sell in other European countries, such as Germany and France, on a Freedom of Services basis. In general, in addition to continuing to meet the threshold conditions to authorization, Lemonade Insurance N.V. and Lemonade Agency B.V. are obliged to comply with European regulations, European directives (in as far as these directives have direct effect in the Netherlands or other European member states in which our subsidiaries do business), the DFSA and the lower regulations set out thereunder, and other national regulations, all of which contain detailed rules covering, among other things, systems and controls, conduct of business, and prudential (i.e. capital and solvency) requirements.
Lemonade Insurance N.V. launched its first product in the UK market in October 2022. Following the departure of the UK from the European Union, European Economic Area firms may continue to operate in the UK for a limited period subject to a temporary permissions regime (the ‘Temporary Permissions Regime’). As such, Lemonade Insurance N.V. operates in the UK as a firm registered in the Netherlands (under Registered No. 846181) authorized and regulated by the DNB, deemed authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. The nature and extent of consumer protections may differ from those for firms based in the UK. Details of the Temporary Permissions Regime, which allows EEA-based firms to operate in the UK for a limited period while seeking full authorization, are available on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website. The firm has registered a branch establishment in the UK and submitted an application for third country branch authorization in accordance with Part 4A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 of the UK in order to allow it to continue to operate in the UK on a permanent basis.
Additional Information
Our internet website address is www.lemonade.com. In addition to the information about us and our subsidiaries contained in this Annual Report, information about us can be found on our website. Our website and information included in or linked to our website are not part of this Annual Report.
Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are available free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, (the “SEC”). Additionally the SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information. The address of the SEC’s website is www.sec.gov.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks, together with all of the other information contained in this Annual Report, before deciding to invest in our common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially and adversely affected by any of these risks or uncertainties, as well as by risks or uncertainties not currently known to us, or that we do not currently believe are material. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. Unless the context indicates otherwise, references in this section to the “merger” or “mergers” refer to the acquisition consummated on July 28, 2022 pursuant to the terms of that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of November 8, 2021, by and among Lemonade, Inc., Metromile, Inc., Citrus Merger Sub A, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lemonade, Inc. and Citrus Merger Sub B, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lemonade, Inc.
Risks Relating to Our Business
We have a history of losses and we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future.
We have not been profitable since our inception in 2015 and had an accumulated deficit of $859.7 million and $561.9 million as of December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively. We incurred net losses of $297.8 million and $241.3 million in the years ended December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively. We expect to make significant investments to further develop and expand our business. In particular, we expect to continue to expend substantial financial and other resources on marketing and advertising as part of our strategy to increase our user base. The marketing and advertising expenses that we incur are typically expensed immediately while any revenues that they generate are recognized ratably over the 12-month term of each insurance policy that we write. This timing difference can therefore result in expenses that exceed the related revenue generated in any given year. As a public company, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. We expect that our net loss will increase in the near term as we continue to make such investments to grow our business. Despite these investments, we may not succeed in increasing our revenue on the timeline that we expect or in an amount sufficient to lower our net loss and ultimately become profitable. Moreover, if our revenue declines, we may not be able to reduce costs in a timely manner because many of our costs are fixed at least in the short term. In addition, if we reduce variable costs to respond to losses, this may limit our ability to sign up new customers and grow our revenues. Accordingly, we may not achieve or maintain profitability and we may continue to incur significant losses in the future.
Our success and ability to grow our business depend on retaining and expanding our customer base. If we fail to add new customers or retain current customers, our business, revenue, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.
We have experienced significant customer growth since we commenced operations; however, we may not be able to maintain this growth and thus, our customer base could stop growing or even shrink over time.
Our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers depends, in large part, on our ability to continue to be perceived as providing delightful and superior insurance-buying and claims- filing customer experiences, competitive pricing, and adequate insurance coverage. In order to maintain this perception, we may be required to incur significantly higher marketing and advertising expenses, costs related to improving our service, and lower margins in order to attract new customers and retain existing customers. If we fail to remain competitive on customer experience, pricing, and insurance coverage options, our ability to grow our business and generate revenue by attracting and retaining customers may be adversely affected.
There are many factors that could negatively affect our ability to grow our customer base, including if:
•we fail to effectively use search engines, social media platforms, digital app stores, content- based online advertising, and other online sources for generating traffic to our website and our online app;
•potential customers in a particular marketplace or generally do not meet our underwriting guidelines;
•our competitors mimic our digital platform, causing current and potential customers to purchase their insurance products instead of our products;
•our digital platform experiences disruptions;
•we experience unfavorable shifts in customer perception of our chat-bots;
•we suffer reputational harm to our brand resulting from negative publicity, whether accurate or inaccurate;
•we fail to expand geographically;
•we fail to offer new and competitive products;
•customers have difficulty installing, updating or otherwise accessing our app or website on mobile devices or web browsers as a result of actions by us or third parties;
•technical or other problems frustrate the customer experience, particularly if those problems prevent us from generating quotes or paying claims in a fast and reliable manner; or
•we are unable to address customer concerns regarding the content, privacy, and security of our digital platform.
Our inability to overcome these challenges could impair our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, revenue, operating results and financial condition.
The "Lemonade" brand may not become as widely known as incumbents' brands or the brand may become tarnished.
Many of our competitors have brands that are well recognized. As a relatively new entrant into the insurance market, we spend considerable money and other resources to create brand awareness and build our reputation. We may not be able to build brand awareness, and our efforts at building, maintaining and enhancing our reputation could fail. Complaints or negative publicity about our business practices, our marketing and advertising campaigns, our compliance with applicable laws and regulations, the integrity of the data that we provide to consumers or business partners, data privacy and security issues, and other aspects of our business, whether valid or not, could diminish confidence in our brand, which could adversely affect our reputation and business. As we expand our product offerings and enter new markets, we need to establish our reputation with new customers, and to the extent we are not successful in creating positive impressions, our business in these newer markets could be adversely affected. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain or enhance our reputation, and failure to do so could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. If we are unable to maintain or enhance consumer awareness of our brand cost-effectively, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
Denial of claims or our failure to accurately and timely pay claims could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
We must accurately and timely evaluate and pay claims that are made under our policies. Many factors affect our ability to pay claims accurately and timely, including the efficacy of our artificial intelligence claims processing, the training and experience of our claims adjusters, including our third-party claims administrators, and our ability to develop or select and implement appropriate procedures and systems to support our claims functions.
The speed by which our artificial intelligence technology allows us to process and pay claims is a differentiating factor for our business and an increase in the average time to process claims could undermine our reputation and position in the insurance marketplace. Any failure to pay claims accurately or timely could also lead to regulatory and administrative actions or material litigation, or result in damage to our reputation, any one of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
If our claims adjusters or third party claims administrators are unable to effectively process our volume of non-automated claims, our ability to grow our business while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction could be compromised, which in turn, could adversely affect our operating margins.
Our future revenue growth and prospects depend on attaining greater value from each user.
Our future growth and prospects depend on our ability to increase the premium per customer of our users, as described in the section titled "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Currently, the large majority of our users are renters. In order to increase our premium per customer, we must increase the number of higher-priced customers, such as homeowners, and the proportion of higher-priced customers relative to lower-priced customers, such as renters. Our business model is premised on the expectation that a significant number of our users that are renters will continue to retain coverage with us as they move from being renters to homeowners. Currently, however, given our limited operating history, substantially all of our current homeowner users are new users who were not previously renters with us. The purchase of a home is a significant event in a person's life and we cannot provide assurances that we will succeed in retaining existing customers that are renters as they become homeowners. This may occur for a variety of factors. For example, at the time a renter
purchases a home, he or she is exposed to a large number of service providers who have direct and personal access to that renter in a way that we do not. Those service providers may have, and share, their own views and preferences for homeowners insurance. Furthermore, given the expenditure involved in a home purchasing decision, differences in price between our insurance product and that of our competitors may appear less significant. In addition, there may even be a perception that a higher priced policy from a traditional brand name insurer may be of higher quality when coupled with the size and longevity of such traditional insurers. A failure to retain renters as they transition to homeowner status may materially adversely impact our future growth and prospects. Moreover, we also sell homeowner policies directly, or indirectly through independent insurance agencies, to customers who did not previously have a renters policy with us. To the extent we are unable to sell homeowner policies directly or via our insurance agency partners to new customers either now or in the future, our ability to increase our premium per customer would be negatively impacted, which could materially adversely impact our future growth and prospects.
The novelty of our business model makes its efficacy unpredictable and susceptible to unintended consequences.
Our business model is predicated on behavioral economics. Under our model, excess premiums can be donated to nonprofits selected by our customers as part of our annual 'Giveback'. While we designed our business model to attract users, align our incentives with those users, discourage fraudulent claims and allow us to offer competitive pricing, our business model may not operate as intended over time and on a larger scale. For example:
•Our commitment to charitable giving through our Giveback program may not align our interests with those of our customers or prospective customers to the extent anticipated. Moreover, our commitment to charitable giving may not resonate with our existing customers or may fail to attract new customers.
•The amount contributed to nonprofits may be viewed as insufficient by existing or new customers. Furthermore, there may be insufficient money remaining after paying claims to make charitable contributions.
•See "Business — Our Vertically-Integrated Platform — Reinsurance." False claims or higher than expected claims could cause reinsurers to charge higher rates, refuse to provide reinsurance or provide reinsurance on less favorable terms. While we have implemented control procedures to detect false claims, such procedures may not prevent such claims from being filed or prevent a sufficient number of them from being paid out.
The failure of our business model to function as intended could materially and adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.
We could be forced to modify or eliminate our Giveback, which could undermine our business model and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
Our Giveback is a cornerstone of our business model that, when coupled with our fixed fee, works to align our interests with those of our customers, which we believe builds trust, minimizes fraud, and keeps our costs down. If a state, federal authority or foreign jurisdiction was to find that the Giveback was a rebate rather than a charitable contribution, or impermissible on other grounds, we may not be able to donate the residual value of our customers' premiums to nonprofits in certain, or any, of the states or foreign jurisdictions in which we operate. If even one regulator were to disallow the Giveback, it could force us to abandon the Giveback in part or entirely, either of which could undermine the behavioral economics foundation on which our business model is based, which in turn could materially and adversely affect our brand, financial condition and results of operations.
Additionally, we could modify, reduce or eliminate the Giveback at our discretion for a variety of reasons. Lemonade Insurance Company's board of directors may determine the amount and distribution of the Giveback by taking into consideration various factors such as the current goodwill and reputation of the nonprofit selected by customers, the amount of funds available for distribution by each cohort, the reasonableness of such contribution, and general shareholders' interests, such as the proposed amount and distribution of the Giveback against factors like overall shareholder returns, our financial and operating performance, and our social responsibility and the benefits shareholders and their communities receive from proposed contributions. Before determining the amount of the Giveback, Lemonade Insurance Company's board of directors may also analyze the extent of our reinsurance coverage and management's expectations with respect to such reinsurance coverage for the upcoming fiscal year, particularly as it relates to the amount of capital and surplus required to continue to operate successfully. If after weighing any of these factors, Lemonade Insurance Company's board of directors were to reduce or eliminate the
Giveback, our business model would be impacted, which, in turn, could materially and adversely affect our brand, financial condition and results of operations.
Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our current business performance, implementation of our business model, and our future prospects.
We launched our business to sell renters and homeowners insurance in late 2016 and have a limited operating history. Due to our limited operating history and the rapid growth we have experienced since we began operations, our operating results are hard to predict, and our historical results may not be indicative of, or comparable to, our future results. In addition, we have limited data to validate key aspects of our business model. For example, our user base is made up primarily of renters and we have very few instances of those renters becoming homeowners, a key element of our business model. It is also difficult for us to track that data. We cannot provide any assurance that the data that we collect will provide useful measures for evaluating our business model. Our inability to adequately assess our performance and growth could have a material adverse effect on our brand, business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may not be able to manage our growth effectively.
Our revenue grew from $94.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, $128.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, to $256.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. Our total employees grew from 567 as of December 31, 2020, to 1,119 as of December 31, 2021, and to 1,367 as of December 31, 2022. Our rapid growth has placed and may continue to place significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. We have hired and expect to continue hiring additional personnel to support our rapid growth. Our organizational structure is becoming more complex as we add staff, and we will need to enhance our operational, financial and management controls as well as our reporting systems and procedures. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change in these areas without undermining our corporate culture of rapid innovation, teamwork and attention to the insurance-buying experience for the customer. If we cannot manage our growth effectively to maintain the quality and efficiency of our customers' insurance- buying experience, as well as their experience as ongoing customers, our business could be harmed as a result, and our results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
Intense competition in the segments of the insurance industry in which we operate could negatively affect our ability to attain or increase profitability.
The renters and homeowners insurance market is highly competitive with carriers competing through product coverage, reputation, financial strength, advertising, price, customer service and distribution.
While we face limited direct competition from traditional insurance companies for first-time renters, we face significant competition from traditional insurance companies for homeowners, car and life. Competitors include companies such as Allstate, Farmers, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, GEICO, Progressive and Travelers. These companies are larger than us and have significant competitive advantages over us, including increased name recognition, higher financial ratings, greater resources, and additional access to capital. Our future growth will depend in large part on our ability to grow our homeowners insurance business in which traditional insurance companies retain certain advantages. In particular, unlike us, many of these competitors offer consumers the ability to purchase renters, homeowners and multiple other types of insurance coverage and "bundle" them together into one policy and, in certain circumstances, include an umbrella liability policy for additional coverage at competitive prices. Moreover, as we expand into new lines of business and offer additional products beyond renters, homeowners, pet, life and car insurance, we could face intense competition from insurance companies that are already established in such markets. Competitors in the pet insurance space include companies such as Nationwide, Embrace, and Trupanion. Competitors in the car insurance space include companies such as Progressive, GEICO and Allstate. Additionally, any new insurance products could take months to be approved by regulatory authorities, or may not be approved at all.
We currently face competition by technology companies in the markets in which we operate. There are various technology companies that have recently started operating in adjacent insurance categories that may in the future offer renters, homeowners, pet, life and car insurance products. Technology companies may in the future begin operating and offering products at better and more competitive pricing than us, which could cause our results of operations and financial condition to be materially and adversely affected. In addition, traditional insurance companies may seek to adapt their businesses to sell insurance and process claims using technology similar to
ours. Given their size, resources, and other competitive advantages, they may be able to erode any market advantage we may currently have over them.
Reinsurance may be unavailable at current levels and prices, which may limit our ability to write new business. Furthermore, reinsurance subjects us to counterparty risk and may not be adequate to protect us against losses, which could have a material effect on our results of operations and financial condition.
Reinsurance is a contract by which an insurer, which may be referred to as the ceding insurer, agrees with a second insurer, called a reinsurer, that the reinsurer will cover a portion of the losses incurred by the ceding insurer in the event a claim is made under a policy issued by the ceding insurer, in exchange for a premium. Our insurance subsidiaries, LIC and MIC, obtains reinsurance to help manage its exposure to property and casualty insurance risks. Although our reinsurance counterparties are liable to us according to the terms of the reinsurance policies, we remain primarily liable to our policyholders as the direct insurers on all risks reinsured. As a result, reinsurance does not eliminate the obligation of our insurance subsidiaries to pay all claims, and we are subject to the risk that one or more of our reinsurers will be unable or unwilling to honor its obligations, that the reinsurers will not pay in a timely fashion, or that our losses are so large that they exceed the limits inherent in our reinsurance contracts, limiting recovery. Reinsurers may become financially unsound by the time that they are called upon to pay amounts due, which may not occur for many years, in which case we may have no legal ability to recover what is due to us under our agreement with such reinsurer. Any disputes with reinsurers regarding coverage under reinsurance contracts could be time consuming, costly, and uncertain of success.
We currently have proportional reinsurance contracts covering a significant portion of our business. Under the Proportional Reinsurance Contracts, which span all of our products and geographies, we transfer, or "cede," a fixed share of our premiums to our reinsurers. In exchange, these reinsurers pay us a "ceding commission" of up to 25% for every dollar ceded, in addition to funding all of the corresponding claims. This arrangement mirrors our fixed fee, and shields our gross margin from the volatility of claims, while improving capital efficiency. We have opted to manage the remaining portion of our business with alternative forms of reinsurance. We have achieved this through the Non-Proportional Reinsurance Contracts. Our business is exposed to the risk of severe weather conditions and other catastrophes which are inherently unpredictable. To reduce risk, on July 1, 2022, we entered into a one year property catastrophe excess of loss treaty. We also purchase reinsurance to protect us from the peril of earthquake. If we are unable to renegotiate, at the same or more favorable terms, the Proportional Reinsurance Contracts or the Non-Proportional Reinsurance Contracts when each expires, such changes could have an adverse impact on our business model. See "Business — Our Vertically-Integrated Platform — Reinsurance."
We may change the structure of our reinsurance arrangement in the future, which may impact our overall risk profile and financial and capital condition. We may be unable to negotiate a new reinsurance contract to provide continuous coverage or negotiate reinsurance on the same terms and rates as are currently available, as such availability depends in part on factors outside of our control. A new contract may not provide sufficient reinsurance protection. Market forces and external factors, such as significant losses from hurricanes or terrorist attacks or an increase in capital requirements, impact the availability and cost of the reinsurance we purchase. If we were unable to maintain our current level of reinsurance, extend our reinsurance contracts or purchase new reinsurance protection in amounts that we consider sufficient at acceptable prices, we would have to either accept an increase in our exposure, reduce our insurance writings or develop or seek other alternatives.
The unavailability of acceptable reinsurance cover would have an adverse impact on our business model, which depends on reinsurance companies to absorb any unfavorable variance from the level of losses anticipated at underwriting. If we are unable to obtain adequate reinsurance at reasonable rates, we would have to increase our risk exposure or reduce the level of our underwriting commitments, each of which could have a material adverse effect upon our business volume and profitability. Alternatively, we could elect to pay higher than reasonable rates for reinsurance coverage, which could have a material adverse effect upon our profitability until policy premium rates could be raised, in most cases subject to approval by state regulators, to offset this additional cost. Moreover, if adequate reinsurance cannot be obtained or maintained at reasonable rates, we may be unable to make contributions to the nonprofit organizations selected by our customers as part of our Giveback, which could erode customer trust, damage our brand, and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Failure to maintain our risk-based capital at the required levels could adversely affect the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to maintain regulatory authority to conduct our business.
We must have sufficient capital to comply with insurance regulatory requirements and maintain authority to conduct our business. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") has developed a system to test the adequacy of statutory capital of U.S.-based insurers, known as risk-based capital that all states have adopted. This system establishes the minimum amount of capital necessary for an insurance company to support its overall business operations. It identifies insurers, including property-casualty insurers, that may be inadequately capitalized by looking at certain inherent risks of each insurer's assets and liabilities and its mix of net written premiums. Insurers falling below a calculated threshold may be subject to varying degrees of regulatory action, including supervision, rehabilitation or liquidation. Moreover, as a new entrant to the insurance industry, we may face additional capital requirements as compared to those of our larger and more established competitors. Failure to maintain adequate risk-based capital at the required levels could adversely affect the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to maintain regulatory authority to conduct its business. See "Regulation — Risk-Based Capital."
If we are unable to expand our product offerings, our prospects for future growth may be adversely affected.
Our ability to attract and retain customers and therefore increase our revenue depends on our ability to successfully expand our product offerings. While we have historically concentrated our efforts exclusively on the renters and homeowners insurance market, we launched pet insurance in 2020, and life and car insurance in 2021, in order to achieve our long-term growth goals. Our success in the renters and homeowners insurance market depends on our deep understanding of this industry. To penetrate new vertical markets, we will need to develop a similar understanding of those new markets and the associated business challenges faced by participants in them. Developing this level of understanding may require substantial investments of time and resources, and we may not be successful. In addition to the need for substantial resources, insurance regulation could limit our ability to introduce new product offerings or the states in which we offer them. Additionally, any new insurance products could take months to be approved by regulatory authorities, or may not be approved at all. If we fail to penetrate new vertical markets successfully, our revenue may grow at a slower rate than we anticipate and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our decision to expand our insurance product offerings beyond the renters, homeowners, pet, life and car insurance market would subject us to additional regulatory requirements specific to such insurance products, which, in turn, could require us to incur additional costs or devote additional resources to compliance.
Our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms may not operate properly or as we expect them to, which could cause us to write policies we should not write, price those policies inappropriately or overpay claims that are made by our customers. Moreover, our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms may lead to unintentional bias and discrimination.
We utilize the data gathered from the insurance application process to determine whether or not to write a particular policy and, if so, how to price that particular policy. Similarly, we use proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms to process many of our claims. The data that we gather through our interactions with our customers is evaluated and curated by proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms. The continuous development, maintenance and operation of our deep-learned backend data analytics engine is expensive and complex, and may involve unforeseen difficulties including material performance problems, undetected defects or errors, for example, with new capabilities incorporating artificial intelligence. We may encounter technical obstacles, and it is possible that we may discover additional problems that prevent our proprietary algorithms from operating properly. If our data analytics do not function reliably, we may incorrectly price insurance products for our customers or incorrectly pay or deny claims made by our customers. Either of these situations could result in customer dissatisfaction with us, which could cause customers to cancel their insurance policies with us, prevent prospective customers from obtaining new insurance policies, or cause us to underprice policies or overpay claims. Additionally, our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms may lead to unintentional bias and discrimination in the underwriting process, which could subject us to legal or regulatory liability. State legislatures and insurance regulators have shown increasing concern about the use of artificial intelligence and the potential for discrimination in the underwriting process. For example, in 2022, both the California and Connecticut Departments of Insurance issued bulletins advising insurers of their obligations related to unfair discrimination when using big data and artificial intelligence. We cannot predict what, if any, limitations state legislatures and insurance regulators may place on the use of artificial intelligence. Any of these eventualities could result in a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Regulators may limit our ability to develop or implement our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms and/or may eliminate or restrict the confidentiality of our proprietary technology, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Our future success depends on our ability to continue to develop and implement our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms, and to maintain the confidentiality of this technology. Changes to existing regulations, their interpretation or implementation, or new regulations could impede our use of this technology, or require that we disclose our proprietary technology to our competitors, which could impair our competitive position and result in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Existing and new legislation or legal requirements may affect how we communicate with our customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business model, financial condition, and results of operations.
State and federal lawmakers, and insurance regulators are focusing upon the use of AI broadly, including concerns about transparency, deception, and fairness in particular. Changes in laws or regulations, or changes in the interpretation of laws or regulations by a regulatory authority, specific to the use of AI, may decrease our revenues and earnings and may require us to change the manner in which we conduct some aspects of our business. In addition, our business and operations are subject to various U.S. federal, state, and local consumer protection laws, including laws which place restrictions on the use of automated and non-automated tools and technologies to communicate with wireless telephone subscribers or consumers generally.
For example, in the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act, among other things, obligates the sender of commercial emails to provide recipients with the ability to opt out of receiving future commercial emails from the sender. In addition, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) places restrictions on making outbound calls, faxes, and SMS text messages to consumers using certain types of automated or prerecorded technology or that involve marketing. Among other restrictions under the TCPA, with respect to phone calls and text messages, prior express consent, and in the case of certain marketing messages, prior express written consent, of consumers may be required before sending certain outbound calls or text messages. While we strive to be compliant with these and similar laws, we could face allegations that we have violated the TCPA, CAN-SPAM Act, or similar laws, rules and regulations, and even if these allegations are without merit, we could face lawsuits and related defense costs, liability (such as fines, damages, consent decrees, and injunctions), harm to our reputation and other losses that could harm our business.
A California law, effective as of July 2019, makes it unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate with a person in California online with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase of goods or services in a commercial transaction. Although we have taken steps to mitigate our liability for violations of this and other laws restricting the use of electronic communication tools, no assurance can be given that we will not be exposed to civil litigation or regulatory enforcement. Further, to the extent that any changes in law or regulation further restrict the ways in which we communicate with prospective or current customers before or during onboarding, customer care, or claims management, these restrictions could result in a material reduction in our customer acquisition and retention, reducing the growth prospects of our business, and adversely affecting our financial condition and future cash flows.
We rely on artificial intelligence, telematics, mobile technology, and our digital platforms to collect data that we evaluate in pricing and underwriting our insurance policies, managing claims and customer support, and improving business processes, and any legal or regulatory requirements that prohibit or restrict our ability to collect or use this data could thus materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
We use artificial intelligence, telematics, mobile technology, and our digital platforms to collect data that we evaluate in pricing and underwriting certain of our insurance policies, managing claims and customer support, and improving business processes. If federal, state or international regulators or courts were to determine that the type of data we collect, the process we use for collecting this data or how we use it unfairly discriminates against or otherwise violates the rights of some groups of people, laws and regulations could be interpreted or implemented to prohibit or restrict our ability to collect or use this data.
State legislatures and insurance regulators have also shown interest in the use of external data and artificial intelligence in insurance practices, including underwriting, marketing and claims practices. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) adopted Artificial Intelligence Principles in August 2020, and a number of states have had legislative or regulatory initiatives relating to the use of external data and artificial intelligence in the insurance industry, including bulletins issued in 2022 by the California and Connecticut Departments of Insurance advising insurers of their obligations related to unfair discrimination when using big data and artificial intelligence.
Due to Proposition 103 in California, our largest market for car insurance, we are currently limited in our ability to use telematics data beyond miles-driven to underwrite insurance, including data on how the car is driven. This could hinder our ability to accurately assess the risks that we underwrite in other states if they were to pass similar laws or regulations. In three other states where we currently operate, we do not use behavioral telematics data because it is either (a) permitted, but we opted out given uncertainty regarding the impact such data would have on pricing, or (b) it is voluntary (meaning the policyholder has to opt in). As we aim to be a fully national provider of insurance across 50 states and the District of Columbia in the future, we will need to comply with the rules and regulations of each market. At this time, we do not know which of our target markets prohibit, permit with conditions, or fully permit the use of behavioral telematics to set premiums, and if permitted, if this will be of benefit to us in pricing. While we are currently in discussions with regulators to allow the use of telematics to a greater extent to underwrite and price insurance policies, we cannot predict the outcome of these discussions, and there can be no assurance that state regulators will revise regulations accordingly, if at all, nor that current permissive states will further restrict the use of such data. Although there is currently limited federal and state legislation outside of California restricting our ability to collect driving behavior data, private organizations are implementing principles and guidelines to protect driver privacy. Some state regulators have expressed interest in the use of external data sources, algorithms and/or predictive models in insurance underwriting or rating. Specifically, regulators have raised questions about the potential for unfair discrimination, disparate impact, and lack of transparency associated with the use of external consumer data. Regulators may also require us to disclose the external data we use, algorithms and/or predictive matters prior to approving our underwriting models and rates. Such disclosures could put our intellectual property at risk.
Further, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”), announced on July 23, 2020 the formation of a new Race and Insurance Special Committee (the “Special Committee”). The Special Committee is tasked with analyzing the level of diversity and inclusion within the insurance sector, identifying current practices in the insurance industry that disadvantage minorities and making recommendations to increase diversity and inclusion within the insurance sector and address practices that disadvantage minorities. The Special Committee may look into strengthening the unfair discrimination laws, such as prohibiting the use of credit scores in the underwriting of car insurance. Any new unfair discrimination legislation that would prohibit us from using data that it currently uses or plans to use in the future to underwrite insurance could negatively impact our business.
Additionally, existing laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), future laws, and evolving attitudes about privacy protection may impair our ability to collect, use, and maintain data points of sufficient type or quantity to develop and train our artificial intelligence algorithms. If such laws or regulations were enacted federally or in a large number of states in which we operate, it could impact the integrity and quality of our pricing and underwriting processes.
There is also increasing focus on regulating the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in Europe. The European Commission published its proposal for a regulation on artificial intelligence on April 12, 2021 (the “E.U. AI Act”), a comprehensive risk-based governance framework for the use of artificial intelligence. The E.U. AI Act is in the early stages of the legislative process but our use of artificial intelligence will likely fall within the scope of the E.U. AI Act once in force, and as such, we will have to ensure our operations are compliant with its requirements, including obligations around transparency, conformity assessments, monitoring, risk assessments, human oversight, security and accuracy. In addition, the European Commission also proposes to update the civil liability regime in the E.U. in relation to the use of artificial intelligence, though these updates are not in force and like the E.U. AI Act is also in the early stages of the legislative process. Following these updates, claimants will be able to bring a claim against operators of artificial intelligence more easily in the case of fault and strict liability will be imposed on artificial intelligence providers for changes made to an artificial intelligence enabled product once the product is already on the market (such as software updates). Once finalized the regulatory framework will require us to make changes to the way we provide our services, require additional compliance measures, lead to substantial costs to ensure compliant practices and could adversely affect our business, operations and financial conditions.
We depend on search engines, social media platforms, digital app stores, content-based online advertising and other online sources to attract consumers to our website and our online app, which may be affected by third-party interference beyond our control and as we grow our customer acquisition costs will continue to rise.
Our success depends on our ability to attract consumers to our website and our online app and convert them into customers in a cost-effective manner. We depend, in large part, on search engines, social media platforms, digital app stores, content-based online advertising and other online sources for traffic to our website and our online app.
With respect to search engines, we are included in search results as a result of both paid search listings, where we purchase specific search terms that result in the inclusion of our advertisement, and free search listings, which depend on algorithms used by search engines. For paid search listings, if one or more of the search engines or other online sources on which we rely for purchased listings modifies or terminates its relationship with us, our expenses could rise, we could lose consumers and traffic to our website could decrease, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. For free search listings, if search engines on which we rely for algorithmic listings modify their algorithms, our websites may appear less prominently or not at all in search results, which could result in reduced traffic to our websites.
Our ability to maintain and increase the number of consumers directed to our products from digital platforms is not within our control. Search engines, social media platforms and other online sources often revise their algorithms and introduce new advertising products. If one or more of the search engines or other online sources on which we rely for traffic to our website and our online app were to modify its general methodology for how it displays our advertisements or keyword search results, resulting in fewer consumers clicking through to our website and our online app, our business and operating results are likely to suffer. In addition, if our online display advertisements are no longer effective or are not able to reach certain consumers due to consumers' use of ad-blocking software, our business and operating results could suffer.
Additionally, changes in regulations or commercial practices could limit the ability of search engines and social media platforms, including, but not limited to, Google and Facebook, to collect data from users and engage in targeted advertising, making them less effective in disseminating our advertisements to our target customers. For example, the proposed Designing Accounting Safeguards to Help Broaden Oversight and Regulations on Data (DASHBOARD) Act would mandate annual disclosure to the SEC of the type and "aggregate value" of user data used by harvesting companies, such as, but not limited to, Facebook, Google and Amazon, including how revenue is generated by user data and what measures are taken to protect the data. If the costs of advertising on search engines and social media platforms increase, we may incur additional marketing expenses or be required to allocate a larger portion of our marketing spend to other channels and our business and operating results could be adversely affected. Similarly, insurance brokerage and distribution regulation may limit our ability to rely on key distribution platforms, such as the Lemonade API, if the third party distribution platforms are unable to continue to distribute our insurance products pursuant to insurance law and regulations.
The marketing of our insurance products depends on our ability to cultivate and maintain cost-effective and otherwise satisfactory relationships with digital app stores, in particular, those operated by Google and Apple. As we grow, we may struggle to maintain cost-effective marketing strategies, and our customer acquisition costs could rise substantially. Furthermore, because many of our customers access our insurance products through an online app, we depend on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store to distribute our online app. Both Apple and Google have broad discretion to change their respective terms and conditions applicable to the distribution of our online app, including those relating to the amount of (and requirement to pay) certain fees associated with purchases facilitated by Apple and Google through our online app, to interpret their respective terms and conditions in ways that may limit, eliminate or otherwise interfere with our ability to distribute online app through their stores, the features we provide and the manner in which we market in-app products. We cannot assure you that Apple or Google will not limit, eliminate or otherwise interfere with the distribution of our online app, the features we provide and the manner in which we market our online app. To the extent either or both of them do so, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. Furthermore, one of the factors we use to evaluate our customer satisfaction and market position is our Apple App Store ratings. This rating, however, may not be a reliable indicator of our customer satisfaction relative to other companies who are rated on the Apple App Store since, to date, we have received a fraction of the number of reviews of some of the companies we benchmark against.
We also attract customers through our relationships with certain business development partners. If our business development partners were to charge higher rates or decide to terminate their relationships with us, our ability to attract customers could be materially impaired. In addition, we have expanded our direct to customer acquisition channels, including subway and taxicab panels. Our efforts to acquire customers through direct marketing may subject us to increased regulatory scrutiny by state insurance regulators pursuant to unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices laws.
We may require additional capital to grow our business, which may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all.
To the extent that our capital is insufficient at any point in time to meet future operating requirements (including regulatory capital requirements) or to cover losses, we may need to raise additional funds through financings or curtail our projected growth. Many factors will affect our capital needs as well as their amount and timing, including our growth and profitability, the availability of reinsurance, as well as market disruptions and other developments.
Historically, we have funded our operations, marketing expenditures and capital expenditures primarily through equity issuances. We evaluate financing opportunities from time to time, and our ability to obtain financing will depend, among other things, on our development efforts, business plans and operating performance, and the condition of the capital markets at the time we seek financing. In addition, the NYDFS and other regulatory bodies may not permit additional equity issuances or other forms of financing that we may wish to pursue. We cannot be certain that additional financing will be available to us on favorable terms, or at all.
If we raise additional funds through the issuance of equity, equity-linked or debt securities, those securities may have rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of our common stock, and our existing stockholders may experience dilution. Any debt financing secured by us in the future could require that a substantial portion of our operating cash flow be devoted to the payment of interest and principal on such indebtedness, which may decrease available funds for other business activities, and could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital-raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities.
If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us, when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth, maintain minimum amounts of risk-based capital and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Interruptions or delays in the services provided by our sole provider of third-party data centers or our internet service providers could impair the operability of our website and our online app and may cause our business to suffer.
We currently offer our products through our website and online app using Amazon Web Services ("AWS") data centers, a provider of cloud infrastructure services. We do not have control over the operations of the facilities of AWS that we use. AWS’s facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from human error, intentional bad acts, earthquakes, floods, fires, severe storms, war, terrorist attacks, power losses, hardware failures, systems failures, telecommunications failures, and similar events, many of which are beyond our control, any of which could disrupt our services, prevent customers from accessing our products, destroy customer data, or prevent us from being able to continuously back up and record data. In the event of significant physical damage to one of these data centers, it may take a significant period of time to achieve full resumption of our services, and our disaster recovery planning may not account for all eventualities. If our data centers or related systems fail to operate properly or become disabled even for a brief period of time, we could suffer financial loss, a disruption of our business, liability to customers or damage to our reputation. We may not be able to easily switch our AWS operations to another cloud or other data center provider if there are disruptions or interference with our use of AWS, and, even if we do switch our operations, other cloud and data center providers are subject to the same risks. Moreover, negative publicity arising from these types of disruptions could damage our reputation and may adversely impact use of our website and online app. We may not carry sufficient business interruption insurance, it may not be sufficient to
compensate us for the potentially significant losses, including the potential harm to the future growth of our business that may result from interruptions in our services or products.
AWS enables us to order and reserve server capacity in varying amounts and sizes distributed across multiple regions and provides us with computing and storage capacity pursuant to an agreement that continues until terminated by either party. Termination of the AWS agreement may harm our ability to access data centers we need to host our website and online app or to do so on terms as favorable as those we have with AWS.
As we continue to expand the number of customers to whom we provide our products and services, we may not be able to scale our technology to accommodate the increased capacity requirements, which may result in interruptions or delays in service. In addition, the failure of AWS data centers or third-party internet service providers to meet our capacity requirements could result in interruptions or delays in access to our website or online app or impede our ability to scale our operations. In the event that our AWS service agreements are terminated, or there is a lapse of service, interruption of internet service provider connectivity or damage to such facilities, we could experience interruptions in access to our website or online app as well as delays and additional expense in arranging new facilities and services, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Security incidents or real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our systems, website or app could impair our operations, result in loss of personal customer information, damage our reputation and brand, and harm our business and operating results.
Our continued success is dependent on our systems, applications, and software continuing to operate and to meet the changing needs of our customers and users. We rely on our technology and engineering staff and vendors to successfully implement changes to and maintain our systems and services in an efficient and secure manner. Like all information systems and technology, our website and online app may contain material errors, failures, vulnerabilities or bugs, particularly when new features or capabilities are released, and may be subject to computer viruses or malicious code, break-ins, phishing impersonation attacks, attempts to overload our servers with denial-of-service or other attacks, ransomware and similar incidents or disruptions from unauthorized use of our computer systems, as well as unintentional incidents causing data leakage, any of which could lead to interruptions, delays or website or online app shutdowns, or could cause loss of critical data, or the unauthorized disclosure, access, acquisition, alteration or use of personal or other confidential information.
If we experience compromises to our security that result in technology performance, integrity, or availability problems, the complete shutdown of our website or our online app or the loss or unauthorized disclosure, access, acquisition, alteration or use of confidential information, customers may lose trust and confidence in us, and customers may decrease the use of our website or our online app, or stop using our website or our online app entirely. Further, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our information or customers' information. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently, often they are not recognized until launched against a target, and may originate from less regulated and remote areas around the world, we may be unable to proactively address these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Even if we take steps that we believe are adequate to protect us from cyber threats, hacking against our competitors or other companies could create the perception among our customers or potential customers that our digital platform is not safe to use.
A significant impact on the performance, reliability, security, and availability of our systems, software, or services may harm our reputation, impair our ability to operate, retain existing customers or attract new customers, and expose us to legal claims and government action, each of which could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects.
We are periodically subject to examinations by our primary state insurance regulators, which could result in adverse examination findings and necessitate remedial actions. In addition, insurance regulators of other states in which we are licensed to operate may also conduct examinations or other targeted investigations, which may also result in adverse examination findings and necessitate remedial actions.
As a New York State-domiciled insurance company, our primary insurance regulator responsible for our supervision and examination is the NYDFS. Periodically, the NYDFS performs examinations of insurance companies under its jurisdiction to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations, financial condition and the conduct of regulated activities. A financial condition examination by NYDFS of Lemonade Insurance Company which began on October 28, 2019 was completed on June 23, 2020, and the findings did not necessitate any
significant or material remedial actions. These periodic examinations provide the NYDFS a significant opportunity to review and scrutinize our business. If, as a result of any examination, the NYDFS determines that our financial condition, capital resources, or other aspects of any of our operations are less than satisfactory, or that we are in violation of applicable laws or regulations, the NYDFS may require us to take one or more remedial actions or otherwise subject us to regulatory scrutiny, such as pursuant to an enforcement action. We cannot predict with precision the likelihood, nature, or extent of any necessary remedial actions, if any, resulting from any examination, or the associated costs of such remedial actions or regulatory scrutiny. In addition, insurance regulators of other states in which we are licensed to operate periodically conduct financial condition or market conduct examinations or other targeted investigations. We have been subject to, and may in the future be subject to, such examination and investigations. Any regulatory or enforcement action or any regulatory order imposing remedial, injunctive, or other corrective action against us resulting from these examinations or investigations could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition or results of operations. MIC is subject to a financial examination by the Delaware Department of Insurance every five years, under which it will review the MIC’s financials, including its relationships and transactions with affiliates. The Delaware Department of Insurance may also conduct special or targeted examinations to address particular concerns or issues at any time. The Delaware Department of Insurance completed MIC's second financial examination covering the period January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020, with no findings in the exam report. Insurance regulators of other states in which MIC is licensed may also conduct examinations, There are ongoing examinations by the California Department of Insurance and the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. The results of each examination can give rise to fines and monetary penalties as well as regulatory orders requiring remedial, injunctive, or other corrective action.
We collect, process, store, share, disclose and use customer information and other data, and our actual or perceived failure to protect such information and data, respect customers' privacy or comply with data privacy and security laws and regulations could damage our reputation and brand and harm our business and operating results.
Use of technology to offer insurance products involves the storage and transmission of information, including personal information, in relation to our staff, contractors, business partners and current, past or potential customers. Security breaches, including by hackers or insiders, could expose confidential information, which could result in potential regulatory investigations, fines, penalties, compliance orders, liability, litigation and remediation costs, as well as reputational harm, any of which could materially adversely affect our business and financial results. For example, unauthorized parties could steal or access our users' names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and other information that we collect when providing insurance quotes, and credit card or other payment information if a customer agrees to purchase insurance coverage from us. Further, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees or customers to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our information or customers' information. Any of these incidents, or any other types of security or privacy related incidents, could result in an investigation by a competent regulator, resulting in a fine or penalty, or an order to implement specific compliance measures. It could also trigger claims by affected third parties. While we use encryption and authentication technology licensed from third parties designed to effect secure transmission of such information, we cannot guarantee the security of the transfer and storage of personal information.
Any or all of the issues above could adversely affect our ability to attract new customers or retain existing customers, or subject us to governmental or third-party lawsuits, investigations, regulatory fines or other actions or liability, resulting in a material adverse effect to our business, results of operations and financial condition.
In addition, many state legislatures have adopted legislation that regulates how businesses operate online, including measures relating to privacy, data security, and data breaches. Such legislation includes the CCPA, which increases privacy rights for California residents and imposes obligations on companies that process their personal information, including an obligation to provide certain new disclosures to such residents. Specifically, among other things, the CCPA creates new consumer rights, and imposes corresponding obligations on covered businesses, relating to the access to, deletion of, and sharing of personal information collected by covered businesses, including California residents' right to access and delete their personal information, opt out of certain sharing and sales of their personal information, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The law exempts from certain requirements of the CCPA certain information that is collected, processed, sold, or disclosed pursuant to the California Financial Information Privacy Act, the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act. The definition of "personal information" in the CCPA is broad and may encompass other information that we maintain beyond that excluded under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Driver's Privacy Protection Act or the California Financial Information Privacy Act exemption. Further, the CCPA provides for civil
penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for certain data breaches that result in the loss of personal information. This private right of action increases the likelihood of, and risks associated with, data breach litigation.
Additionally, a new California ballot initiative, the California Privacy Rights Act, or the CPRA, was recently passed in California and expands the scope of the CCPA and creates new consumer privacy rights for California residents, including rights to correct personal information. Further, the CPRA imposes additional obligations on businesses to implement data retention and minimization practices contractually limit the use of personal information by service providers and contractors, perform cybersecurity audits and risk assessments, and implement reasonable security. The CPRA also permits consumers to opt out of the sharing of personal information for use in behavioral advertising, which may impact our ability to market our products and services. The CPRA also establishes the California Privacy Protection Agency, which is the first data privacy regulator in the U.S., to enforce the CPRA. The CPRA strengthens some of the enforcement authority established under the CCPA and could result in increased enforcement actions and fines. We may incur additional costs associated with compliance efforts leading up to the effective date.
Some observers have noted that the CCPA and CPRA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the United States, and multiple states have enacted, or are expected to enact, similar laws. There is also discussion in Congress of a new comprehensive federal data protection and privacy law to which we likely would be subject if it is enacted. The effects of the CCPA and CPRA, and other similar state or federal laws, are potentially significant and may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs and potential liability in an effort to comply with such legislation.
As we continue to expand into Europe, we may also face particular privacy, data security, and data protection risks in connection with requirements of the GDPR and other data protection regulations. The GDPR and the UK GDPR impose comprehensive data privacy compliance obligations in relation to our collection, processing, sharing, disclosure, transfer and other use of data relating to an identifiable living individual or “personal data” , including a principal of accountability and the obligation to demonstrate compliance through policies, procedures, training and audit. Any failure or perceived failure to comply with these rules may result in regulatory fines or penalties including orders that require us to change the way we process data (including by way of our algorithms). In the event of a data breach, we are also subject to breach notification laws in the jurisdictions in which we operate, including U.S. state laws and the GDPR, and the risk of litigation and regulatory enforcement actions. In addition, a number of federal and state laws and regulations relating to privacy affect and apply to the insurance industry specifically, including those imposed by the NYDFS. See "Business - Regulation."
Additionally, we are subject to the terms of our privacy policies and privacy-related obligations to third parties. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to customers or other third parties, or our privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of sensitive information, which could include personally identifiable information or other user data, may result in governmental or regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, regulatory fines, compliance orders, litigation or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others, and could cause customers to lose trust in us, all of which could be costly and have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, new and changed rules and regulations regarding privacy, data protection (in particular those that impact the use of artificial intelligence) and cross-border transfers of customer information could cause us to delay planned uses and disclosures of data to comply with applicable privacy and data protection requirements. Moreover, if third parties that we work with violate applicable laws or our policies, such violations also may put personal information at risk, which may result in increased regulatory scrutiny and have a material adverse effect to our reputation, business and operating results.
We employ third-party licensed software for use in our business, and the inability to maintain these licenses, errors in the software we license or the terms of open source licenses could result in increased costs or reduced service levels, which would adversely affect our business.
Our business relies on certain third-party software obtained under licenses from other companies. We anticipate that we will continue to rely on such third-party software in the future. Although we believe that there are commercially reasonable alternatives to the third-party software we currently license, this may not always be the case, or it may be difficult or costly to replace. In addition, integration of new third-party software may require significant work and require substantial investment of our time and resources. Our use of additional or alternative third-party software would require us to enter into license agreements with third parties, which may not be available
on commercially reasonable terms or at all. Many of the risks associated with the use of third-party software cannot be eliminated, and these risks could negatively affect our business.
Additionally, the software powering our technology systems incorporates software covered by open source licenses. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that the licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to operate our systems. In the event that portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code or re-engineer all or a portion of our technology systems, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our technology systems. Such risk could be difficult or impossible to eliminate and could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We may be subject to compliance obligations arising from medical information privacy regulations.
By processing certain personal injury data on behalf of our clients, we may be subject to specific compliance obligations under privacy and data security-related laws specific to the protection of healthcare information. Although we may be subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, and related state laws, we do not have a process in place to assess or align our privacy and security practices specifically against requirements for protecting medical information.
We may face particular privacy, data security, and data protection risks as we continue to expand into Europe and the UK in connection with the GDPR, UK GDPR, and other data protection regulations.
The GDPR/UK GDPR (herein after referred to as GDPR) applies to the processing of personal data by our business in the context of our establishments in the European Union and/or the UK.. In addition, all portions of our business established outside the European Union may be required to comply with the requirements of the GDPR with respect to the offering of products or services to individuals in the European Union or UK. The GDPR could also apply to our establishments of business outside the European Union if we were to monitor the activities of individuals in the European Union or become established in the European Union/UK. The GDPR and UK GDPR increases the maximum level of fines for the most serious compliance failures to the greater of four percent of annual worldwide turnover or €20,000,000/ GBP17,500,000, respectively.
We may also be subject to the local privacy and data protection laws of the E.U. Member States in which we offer products or services, which can carry penalties and potential criminal sanctions.
The regulatory requirements and restrictions set out in the GDPR include, among others, the following:
•The GDPR imposes a number of principles with respect to the processing of personal data, including requirements to process personal data lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner, to process personal data only to the extent necessary for the purposes required, maintain the accuracy of personal data, limit the retention of personal data for no longer than is necessary, and maintain appropriate technical and organizational security measures against unauthorized processing or accidental loss, destruction, or damage. We are implementing external and internal policies and procedures, technical measures and internal training designed to adhere to those principles;
•In relation to the transparency principle, the GDPR requires us to provide individuals in the European Union whose personal data we process ("data subjects") with certain information regarding the processing of their personal data by us, and we have an E.U. privacy policy, which can be found at https://www.lemonade.com/de/en/privacy-policy (with respect to Germany), https://www.lemonade.com/nl/en/privacy-policy (with respect to the Netherlands) and http://www.lemonade.com/fr/en/privacy-policy (with respect to France);
•The GDPR requires us to maintain internal records of our processing activities and to make those records available to regulators on demand;
•The GDPR requires us to include certain mandatory terms in our agreements with third parties that process personal data subject to the GDPR on our behalf ("Processors") and we are in the process of entering into compliant data processing terms with each of our Processors. If third parties with whom we work were to violate their obligations under the GDPR, and/or under their agreements with us, such violation could potentially have an adverse impact on our business;
•The GDPR grants data subjects certain rights, including the right to object to the processing of their personal data by us, to request copies of their personal data from us, to receive information regarding the processing of their personal data and to exercise certain other rights against us in respect of their personal data, and we are implementing internal policies and procedures designed to address those rights;
•The GDPR prohibits automated decision making, i.e. a decision evaluating a data subject's personal aspects based solely on automated processing that produces legal effects or other significant effects for that data subject, except where such decision making is necessary for entering into or performing a contract or is based on the data subject's explicit consent. There is not yet any clear precedent as to whether use of artificial intelligence to make insurance offers to individuals will be considered necessary even though it is integral to our business model. If our automated decision making processes cannot meet this necessity threshold, we cannot use these processes with E.U. data subjects unless we obtain their explicit consent. Relying on consent to conduct this type of processing holds its own risks because consent must be considered freely given (commentators argue that seeking consent by tying it to a service may be problematic) and consent can be withdrawn by a data subject at any time. We are continually monitoring for updates to guidance in this area, however, if subsequent guidance and/or decisions limit our ability to use our artificial intelligence models, that may decrease our operational efficiency and result in an increase to the costs of operating our business. Automated decision making also attracts a higher regulatory burden under the GDPR, which requires the existence of such automated decision making be disclosed to the data subject including a meaningful explanation of the logic used in such decision making, and safeguards must be implemented to safeguard individual rights, including the right to obtain human intervention and to contest any decision; and
•The GDPR also places limits on the profiling of individuals, i.e. processing of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects, like analyzing or predicting aspects of a person's economic situation, health, personal preferences, location, etc. There is a lack of clarity on when we can rely on consent from the data subject to conduct profiling, or when we can rely on our legitimate business interests to do so. In the latter case, it is unclear what kind of opt-out mechanism would be required to achieve GDPR compliance. We are continually monitoring for updates to guidance in this area, however, if subsequent guidance and/or decisions limit our ability to engage in profiling, that may decrease our operational efficiency and result in an increase to the costs of operating our business.
We are also subject to European Union rules with respect to cross-border transfers of personal data out of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom, which have recently been subject to judicial scrutiny. Recent legal developments in Europe have created complexity and uncertainty regarding transfers of personal data from the EEA to the United States. Most recently, on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework (“Privacy Shield”) under which personal data could be transferred from the EEA to US entities who had self-certified under the Privacy Shield scheme.
While the CJE.U. upheld the adequacy of the standard contractual clauses (a standard form of contract approved by the European Commission as an adequate personal data transfer mechanism, and potential alternative to the Privacy Shield), it made clear that reliance on them alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances. Use of the standard contractual clauses must now be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the legal regime applicable in the destination country, in particular applicable surveillance laws and rights of individuals and additional measures and/or contractual provisions may need to be put in place, however, the nature of these additional measures is currently uncertain. The CJE.U. went on to state that if a competent supervisory authority believes that the standard contractual clauses cannot be complied with in the destination country and the required level of protection cannot be secured by other means, such supervisory authority is under an obligation
to suspend or prohibit that transfer.
These recent developments will require us to review and amend the legal mechanisms by which we make and/ or receive personal data transfers to/ in the U.S. As supervisory authorities issue further guidance on personal data export mechanisms, including circumstances where the standard contractual clauses cannot be used, and/or start taking enforcement action, we could suffer additional costs, complaints and/or regulatory investigations or fines, and/or if we are otherwise unable to transfer personal data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, it could affect the manner in which we provide our services, the geographical location or segregation of our relevant systems and operations, and could adversely affect our financial results.
In respect of the GDPR’s obligations, we rely on positions and interpretations of the law that have yet to be fully tested before the relevant courts and regulators. If a regulator or court of competent jurisdiction determined that one or more of our compliance efforts does not satisfy the applicable requirements of the GDPR, or if any party brought a claim in this regard, there could be potential governmental or regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, regulatory fines, compliance orders, litigation or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others, and that could cause customers to lose trust in us and damage our reputation. Likewise, a change in guidance could be costly and have an adverse effect on our business.
In addition, Directive 2002/58/EC (as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC) (together, the "e-Privacy Directive") governs, among other things, the use of cookies and the sending of electronic direct marketing within the European Union and, as such, will apply to our marketing activities within the European Union. The ePrivacy Directive will be replaced by an E.U. regulation known as the ePrivacy Regulation, which is still under development and is expected to replace current national laws that implement the ePrivacy Directive. As agreement of the final text of ePrivacy Regulation has been significantly delayed, various E.U. Data Protection Authorities have published guidance clarifying that opt-in consent is now required in respect of cookies used for marketing and in most cases analytics (the position on the use of first-party cookies for analytics is not clear) and Data Protection Authorities are beginning to enforce these rules. Recent European court and regulator decisions are also driving increased attention to cookies and tracking technologies. The decline of cookies or other tracking technologies as a means to identify and target potential purchases may increase the cost of operating our business and lead to a decline in revenues and impair our ability to collect user information. In addition, legal uncertainties about the legality of cookies and other tracking technologies may lead to regulatory scrutiny and increase potential civil liability under data protection or consumer protection laws. Any such changes may force us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices which could compromise our ability to pursue our growth strategy effectively and may adversely affect our ability to acquire customers or otherwise harm our business, financial condition and operating results.
Any significant change to applicable laws, regulations, interpretations of laws or regulations, or market practices, regarding the use of personal data, or regarding the manner in which we seek to comply with applicable laws and regulations, could require us to make modifications to our products, services, policies, procedures, notices, and business practices, including potentially material changes. Such changes could potentially have an adverse impact on our business.
We may be unable to prevent or address the misappropriation of our data.
From time to time, third parties may misappropriate our data through website scraping, bots or other means and aggregate this data on their websites with data from other companies. In addition, copycat websites or online apps may misappropriate data and attempt to imitate our brand or the functionality of our website or our online app. If we become aware of such websites or online apps, we intend to employ technological or legal measures in an attempt to halt their operations. However, we may be unable to detect all such websites or online apps in a timely manner and, even if we could, technological and legal measures may be insufficient to halt their operations. In some cases, particularly in the case of websites or online apps operating outside of the United States, our available remedies may not be adequate to protect us against the effect of the operation of such websites or online apps. Regardless of whether we can successfully enforce our rights against the operators of these websites or online apps, any measures that we may take could require us to expend significant financial or other resources, which could harm our business, results of operations or financial condition. In addition, to the extent that such activity creates confusion among consumers or advertisers, our brand and business could be harmed.
We rely on the experience and expertise of our Co-Founders, senior management team, highly-specialized insurance experts, key technical employees and other highly skilled personnel.
Our success depends upon the continued service of Daniel Schreiber, our co-founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors, and Shai Wininger, our co-founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors (collectively with Mr. Schreiber, our "Co-Founders"), and senior management team, highly-specialized insurance experts and key technical employees, as well as our ability to continue to attract and retain additional highly qualified personnel. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, retain and integrate highly skilled personnel for all areas of our organization. If we are unable to attract the requisite personnel, our business and prospects may be adversely affected. Each of our Co-Founders, executive officers, specialized insurance experts, key technical personnel and other employees could terminate his or her relationship with us at any time. The loss of either of our Co-Founders or any other member of our senior management team, specialized insurance experts or key personnel might significantly delay or prevent
the achievement of our strategic business objectives and could harm our business. We rely on a small number of highly-specialized insurance experts, the loss of any one of whom could have a disproportionate impact on our business. Competition in our industry for qualified employees is intense. Our compensation arrangements, such as our equity award programs, may not always be successful in attracting new employees and retaining and motivating our existing employees. Moreover, if and when the stock options or other equity awards are substantially vested, employees under such equity arrangements may be more likely to leave, particularly when the underlying shares have seen a value appreciation.
We face significant competition for personnel, particularly in New York, where our headquarters is located and in Tel Aviv, where many of our technical employees are located. To attract top talent, we have to offer, and believe we will need to continue to offer, competitive compensation and benefits packages. We may also need to increase our employee compensation levels in response to competitor actions. If we are unable to hire new employees quickly enough to meet our needs, or otherwise fail to effectively manage our hiring needs or successfully integrate new hires, including our recently hired management team members and new team members as a result of the merger with Metromile, our efficiency, ability to meet forecasts and our employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
If our customers were to claim that the policies they purchased failed to provide adequate or appropriate coverage, we could face claims that could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Although we aim to provide adequate and appropriate coverage under each of our policies, customers could purchase policies that prove to be inadequate or inappropriate. If such customers were to bring a claim or claims alleging that we failed in our responsibilities to provide them with the type or amount of coverage that they sought to purchase, Lemonade Insurance Agency, LLC or Metromile Insurance Services LLC could be found liable, resulting in an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. While we maintain agents errors and omissions insurance coverage to protect us against such liability, such coverage may be insufficient or inadequate.
We conduct certain of our operations in Israel and therefore our results may be adversely affected by political, economic and military instability in Israel and the region.
We maintain offices in Israel and some of our officers, employees and directors are located in Israel, including our Co-Founders and some of our product development staff, help desk and online sales support operations. As of December 31, 2022, we had 315 full-time employees in Israel. Although we do not currently sell our insurance products in Israel, political, economic and military conditions in Israel and the surrounding region may directly affect our Israeli operations. In recent years, Israel has been involved in sporadic armed conflicts with Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip, with Hezbollah, an Islamist terrorist group that controls large portions of Southern Lebanon, and with Iranian-backed military forces in Syria. Some of these hostilities were accompanied by missile strikes from the Gaza Strip against civilian targets in various parts of Israel, including areas in which our officers, employees and directors are located, and negatively affected conditions in Israel. The tension between Israel and Iran and/or these groups may escalate in the future and turn even more violent, which could materially adversely affect conditions in Israel in general and our operations in particular.
Furthermore, many Israeli citizens are obligated to perform several days, and in some cases more, of annual military reserve duty each year until they reach the age of 40 (or older, for reservists who are military officers or who have certain occupations) and, in the event of a military conflict, may be called to active duty. In response to increases in terrorist activity, there have been periods of significant call-ups of military reservists and it is possible that there will be military reserve duty call-ups in the future. Many of our officers and employees based in Israel may be called upon to perform military reserve duty and, in emergency circumstances, may be called to immediate and unlimited active duty. If this were to occur, our operations could be disrupted by the absence of a significant number of employees, which could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations.
Parties with whom we do business may sometimes decline to travel to Israel during periods of heightened unrest or tension, forcing us to make alternative arrangements when necessary to meet our business partners face to face. Further, shifting economic and political conditions in the United States and in other countries may result in changes in how the United States and other countries conduct business and other relations with Israel, which may have an adverse impact on our Israeli operations and a material adverse impact on our business. In addition, several countries, principally in the Middle East, restrict doing business with Israel, and additional countries may
impose restrictions on doing business with Israel and Israeli companies whether as a result of hostilities in the region or otherwise. Moreover, there have been increased efforts by organizations and movements to cause companies and consumers to boycott Israeli goods based on Israeli government policies. Any hostilities, armed conflicts or political instability involving Israel could adversely affect our results of operations.
Our commercial insurance may not cover losses that could occur as a result of events associated with the security situation in the Middle East. Any losses or damages incurred by us could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Continued hostilities between Israel and its neighbors and any future armed conflict, terrorist activity or political instability in the region could adversely affect our operations in Israel and adversely affect the market price of our common stock. An escalation of tensions or violence might result in a significant downturn in the economic or financial condition of Israel, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations in Israel and our business.
The Israeli government is currently pursuing extensive changes to Israel’s judicial system. This has sparked extensive political debate. In response to the foregoing developments, many individuals, organizations and institutions, both within and outside of Israel, have voiced concerns that the proposed changes may negatively impact the business environment in Israel, due to potential reluctance of foreign investors to invest or transact business in Israel, increased currency fluctuations, downgrades in credit rating, increased interest rates, increased volatility in securities markets, and other changes in macroeconomic conditions. To the extent that any of these negative developments occur, they may have an adverse effect on our business, our results of operations, or our ability to raise additional funds, if deemed necessary by our management and board of directors.
We may become subject to claims under Israeli law for remuneration or royalties for assigned service invention rights by our Israel-based contractors or employees, which could result in litigation and adversely affect our business.
We enter into assignment of invention agreements with employees and contractors, pursuant to which such individuals assign to us all rights to any inventions created in the scope of their employment or engagement with us. Under the Israeli Patent Law, 5727-1967 (the "Israel Patent Law"), inventions conceived by an employee or a person deemed to be an employee during and in consequence of their employment are regarded as "service inventions," which belong to the employer, absent a specific agreement between employee and employer giving the employee service invention rights. In the case of a service invention, employees and former employees may petition the Israeli Compensation and Royalties Committee established under the Israel Patent Law to determine whether they are entitled to remuneration for their service inventions. The Israeli Compensation and Royalties Committee and the Supreme Court have held that employees may be entitled to remuneration for their service inventions despite having waived such rights, resulting in uncertainty under Israeli law with respect to the efficacy of waivers of service invention rights. Although our contractors and employees have agreed to assign to us service invention rights, we may face claims demanding remuneration in consideration for assigned inventions. As a consequence of such claims, we could be required to pay additional remuneration or royalties to our current or former contractors or employees, or be forced to litigate such claims, which could negatively affect our business.
Our company culture has contributed to our success and if we cannot maintain this culture as we grow, our business could be harmed.
We believe that our company culture has been critical to our success. Our status as a Certified B Corp and commitment to charitable giving distinguish us from our competitors and promote a relationship among our employees and customers founded on trust. We not only seek to engender a trusting relationship between our brand and our customers, but also among our employees. Our ability to continue to cultivate and maintain this culture is essential to our growth and continued success. We face a number of challenges that may affect our ability to sustain our corporate culture, including:
•failure to identify, attract, reward and retain people in leadership positions in our organization who share and further our culture, values and mission;
•the increasing size and geographic diversity of our workforce, and our ability to promote a uniform and consistent culture across all our offices and employees;
•the market perception about our charitable contributions and social and political stances;
•competitive pressures to move in directions that may divert us from our mission, vision and values;
•the continued challenges of a rapidly-evolving industry; and
•the increasing need to develop expertise in new areas of business that affect us.
Our unique culture is one of our core characteristics that helps us to attract and retain key personnel. If we are not able to maintain our culture, we would have to incur additional costs and find alternative methods to recruit key employees, which in turn could cause our business, results of operations and financial condition to be adversely affected.
If we are unable to underwrite risks accurately and charge competitive yet profitable rates to our customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.
In general, the premiums for our insurance policies are established at the time a policy is issued and, therefore, before all of our underlying costs are known. The accuracy of our pricing is subject to our ability to adequately assess risks, estimate losses and comply with state insurance regulations. Like other insurance companies, we rely on estimates and assumptions in setting our premium rates. We also utilize the data that we gather through our interactions with our customers, as evaluated and curated by our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms.
Establishing adequate premium rates is necessary, together with investment income, if any, to generate sufficient revenue to offset losses, loss adjustment expenses ("LAE") and other costs. If we do not accurately assess the risks that we underwrite, we may not charge adequate premiums to cover our losses and expenses, which would adversely affect our results of operations and our profitability. Moreover, if we determine that our prices are too low, insurance regulations may preclude us from being able to cancel insurance contracts, non-renew customers, or raise prices. Alternatively, we could set our premiums too high, which could reduce our competitiveness and lead to lower revenues, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Pricing involves the acquisition and analysis of historical loss data and the projection of future trends, loss costs and expenses, and inflation trends, among other factors, for each of our products in multiple risk tiers and many different markets. In order to accurately price our policies, we must:
•collect and properly analyze a substantial volume of data from our customers;
•develop, test and apply appropriate actuarial projections and rating formulas;
•review and evaluate competitive product offerings and pricing dynamics;
•closely monitor and timely recognize changes in trends; and
•project both frequency and severity of our customers' losses with reasonable accuracy.
There are no assurances that we will have success in implementing our pricing methodology accurately in accordance with our assumptions. Our ability to accurately price our policies is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including:
•insufficient or unreliable data;
•incorrect or incomplete analysis of available data;
•uncertainties generally inherent in estimates and assumptions;
•our failure to implement appropriate actuarial projections and rating formulas or other pricing methodologies;
•incorrect or incomplete analysis of the competitive environment;
•regulatory constraints on rate increases; and
•our failure to accurately estimate investment yields and the duration of our liability for loss and loss adjustment expense, as well as unanticipated court decisions, legislation or regulatory action.
To address the potential inadequacy of our current business model, we may be compelled to increase the amount allocated to cover policy claims, increase premium rates or adopt tighter underwriting standards, any of which may result in a decline in new business and renewals and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our exposure to loss activity and regulation may be greater in states where we currently have most of our customers: California, New York and Texas.
Approximately 54% of our gross written premium for the year ended December 31, 2022 originated from customers in California, New York, and Texas. As a result of this concentration, if a significant catastrophe event or series of catastrophe events occur, such as COVID-19 or a natural disaster, and cause material losses in California, New York and Texas, our business, financial condition and results of operation could be materially adversely
affected. Further, as compared to our competitors who operate on a wider geographic scale, any adverse changes in the regulatory environment affecting property and casualty insurance in California, New York and Texas may expose us to more significant risks.
Our product development cycles are complex and subject to regulatory approval, and we may incur significant expenses before we generate revenues, if any, from new products.
Because our products are highly-advanced and require rigorous testing and regulatory approvals, development cycles can be complex. Moreover, development projects can be technically challenging and expensive, and may be delayed or defeated by the inability to obtain licensing or other regulatory approvals. The nature of these development cycles may cause us to experience delays between the time we incur expenses associated with research and development and the time we generate revenues, if any, from such expenses. If we expend a significant amount of resources on research and development and our efforts do not lead to the successful introduction or improvement of products that are competitive in the marketplace, this could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. Additionally, anticipated customer demand for a product we are developing could decrease after the development cycle has commenced. Such decreased customer demand may cause us to fall short of our sales targets, and we may nonetheless be unable to avoid substantial costs associated with the product's development. If we are unable to complete product development cycles successfully and in a timely fashion and generate revenues from such future products, the growth of our business may be harmed.
Litigation and legal proceedings filed by or against us and our subsidiaries could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Litigation and other proceedings may include, but are not limited to, complaints from or litigation by customers or reinsurers, related to alleged breaches of contract or otherwise. As our market share increases, competitors may pursue litigation to require us to change our business practices or offerings and limit our ability to compete effectively. As is typical in the insurance industry, we continually face risks associated with litigation of various types arising in the normal course of our business operations, including disputes relating to insurance claims under our policies as well as other general commercial and corporate litigation. Although we are not currently involved in any material litigation with our customers, us and other members of the insurance industry are the target of class action lawsuits and other types of litigation, some of which involve claims for substantial or indeterminate amounts, and the outcomes of which are unpredictable. This litigation is based on a variety of issues, including sale of insurance and claim settlement practices. In addition, because we employ artificial intelligence to collect data points, customers or consumer groups have brought and could bring individual or class action claims alleging that our methods of collecting or using data and pricing risk are impermissibly discriminatory or otherwise improper. We cannot predict with any certainty whether we will be involved in such material litigation in the future or what impact such material litigation would have on our business. If we were to be involved in litigation and it was determined adversely, it could require us to pay significant damage amounts or to change aspects of our operations, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial results. Even claims without merit can be time- consuming and costly to defend and may divert management's attention and resources away from our business and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Additionally, routine lawsuits over claims that are not individually material could in the future become material if aggregated with a substantial number of similar lawsuits. In addition to increasing costs, a significant volume of customer complaints or litigation could adversely affect our brand and reputation, regardless of whether such allegations are valid or whether we are liable. We cannot predict with certainty the costs of defense, the costs of prosecution, insurance coverage or the ultimate outcome of litigation or other proceedings filed by or against us, including remedies or damage awards, and adverse results in such litigation, and other proceedings may harm our business and financial condition. See "Legal Proceedings."
Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our success is dependent in part on protecting our intellectual property rights and technology (such as source code, information, data, processes and other forms of information, knowhow and technology). We rely on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secret laws and contractual restrictions to establish and protect our intellectual property. However, there are steps that we have not yet taken to protect our intellectual property on a global basis. Additionally, the steps that we have already taken to protect our intellectual property may not be sufficient or effective. Even if we do detect violations, we may need to engage in litigation to enforce our rights.
While we take precautions designed to protect our intellectual property, it may still be possible for competitors and other unauthorized third parties to copy our technology and use our proprietary brand, content and information to create or enhance competing solutions and services, which could adversely affect our competitive position in our rapidly evolving and highly competitive industry. Some license provisions that protect against unauthorized use, copying, transfer and disclosure of our technology may be unenforceable under the laws of certain jurisdictions and foreign countries. We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and enter into confidentiality agreements with our third-party providers and strategic partners. We cannot assure you that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, and use and distribution of, our platform and proprietary information. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our offerings. Such arrangements may limit our ability to protect, maintain, enforce or commercialize such intellectual property rights, including requiring agreement with or payment to our joint development partners before protecting, maintaining, licensing or initiating enforcement of such intellectual property rights, and may allow such joint development partners to register, maintain, enforce or license such intellectual property rights in a manner that may affect the value of the jointly-owned intellectual property or our ability to compete in the market.
We have filed, and may continue in the future to file, applications to protect certain of our innovations and intellectual property. We do not know whether any of our applications will result in the issuance of a patent, trademark or copyright, as applicable, or whether the examination process will require us to narrow our claims. In addition, we may not receive competitive advantages from the rights granted under our intellectual property. Our existing intellectual property, and any intellectual property granted to us or that we otherwise acquire in the future, may be contested, circumvented or invalidated, and we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing our rights to our intellectual property. Therefore, the exact effect of the protection of this intellectual property cannot be predicted with certainty. In addition, given the costs, effort, risks and downside of obtaining patent protection, including the requirement to ultimately disclose the invention to the public, we may choose not to seek patent protection for certain innovations. Any failure to adequately obtain such patent protection, or other intellectual property protection, could later prove to adversely impact our business.
We currently hold various domain names relating to our brand, including Lemonade and Lemonade.com. Failure to protect our domain names could adversely affect our reputation and brand and make it more difficult for users to find our website and our online app. We may be unable, without significant cost or at all, to prevent third parties from acquiring domain names that are similar to, infringe upon or otherwise decrease the value of our trademarks and other proprietary rights.
We may be required to spend significant resources in order to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights, and some violations may be difficult or impossible to detect. Litigation to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology against unauthorized copying or use, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management's attention and resources, could impair the functionality of our platform, delay introductions of enhancements to our platform, result in our substituting inferior or more costly technologies into our platform or harm our reputation or brand. In addition, we may be required to license additional technology from third parties to develop and market new offerings or platform features, which may not be on commercially reasonable terms or at all and could adversely affect our ability to compete.
If we are unable to prevent the unauthorized use or exploitation of our intellectual property, the value of our brand, content, and other intangible assets may be diminished, competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our service and methods of operations, the perception of our business and service to customers and potential customers may become confused, and our ability to attract customers may be adversely affected. Any inability or failure to protect our intellectual property could adversely impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Claims by others that we infringed their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could harm our business.
Companies in the internet and technology industries are frequently subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, certain companies and rights holders seek to enforce and monetize patents or other intellectual property rights they own, have purchased or otherwise
obtained. As we gain an increasingly high public profile, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us grows. From time to time, third parties may assert claims of infringement of intellectual property rights against us. Although we believe that we have meritorious defenses, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us. Our competitors and others may now and in the future have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios than us. In addition, future litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product or service revenue and against whom our own patents may therefore provide little or no deterrence or protection. Many potential litigants, including some of our competitors and patent-holding companies, have the ability to dedicate substantial resources to assert their intellectual property rights. Any claim of infringement by a third party, even those without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against the claim, could distract our management from our business and could require us to cease use of such intellectual property. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, we risk compromising our confidential information during this type of litigation. We may be required to pay substantial damages, royalties or other fees in connection with a claimant securing a judgment against us, we may be subject to an injunction or other restrictions that prevent us from using or distributing our intellectual property, or from operating under our brand, or we may agree to a settlement that prevents us from distributing our offerings or a portion thereof, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
With respect to any intellectual property rights claim, we may have to seek out a license to continue operations found to violate such rights, which may not be available on favorable or commercially reasonable terms and may significantly increase our operating expenses. Some licenses may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. If a third party does not offer us a license to its intellectual property on reasonable terms, or at all, we may be required to develop alternative, non-infringing technology, which could require significant time (during which we would be unable to continue to offer our affected offerings), effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We may not be able to utilize a portion of our net operating loss carryforwards ("NOLs") to offset future taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which could adversely affect our net income and cash flows.
As of December 31, 2022, we had gross accumulated federal NOLs for tax purposes of $236.3 million, which can be offset against our future taxable income. Of these federal NOLs, $15.7 million in losses will begin to expire in 2035 and $220.6 million in losses can be carried forward indefinitely. As of December 31, 2022, the Company has gross accumulated state and local losses for tax purposes of $25.8 million which will begin to expire in 2029.
We may be unable to fully use our NOLs, if at all. Under Section 382 of the Code, if a corporation undergoes an "ownership change" (very generally defined as a greater than 50% change, by value, in the corporation's equity ownership by certain shareholders or groups of shareholders over a rolling three- year period), the corporation's ability to use its pre-ownership change NOLs to offset its post- ownership change income may be limited. We may experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership, some of which may be outside of our control. If we undergo an ownership change, we may be prevented from fully utilizing our NOLs existing at the time of the ownership change prior to their expiration. Future regulatory changes could also limit our ability to utilize our NOLs. To the extent we are not able to offset future taxable income with our NOLs, our net income and cash flows may be adversely affected.
The enactment of legislation implementing changes in tax legislation or policies in different geographic jurisdictions may impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We conduct business globally and file income tax returns in multiple jurisdictions. Our consolidated effective income tax rate could be materially adversely affected by several factors, including: changing tax laws, regulations and treaties, or the interpretation thereof (such as the recent Inflation Reduction Act which, among other changes, introduced a 15% corporate minimum tax on certain United States corporations and a 1% excise tax on certain stock redemptions by United States corporations); tax policy initiatives and reforms under consideration (such as those related to the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Sharing or other projects); the practices of tax authorities in jurisdictions in which we operate; and the resolution of issues arising from tax audits or examinations and any related interest or penalties.
We are unable to predict what tax reforms may be proposed or enacted in the future or what effect such changes would have on our business, but such changes, to the extent they are brought into tax legislation, regulations, policies or practices in jurisdictions in which we operate, could increase the estimated tax liability that we have expensed to date and paid or accrued on our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, and otherwise affect our future results of operations, cash flows in a particular period and overall or effective tax rates in the future in countries where we have operations, reduce post-tax returns to our shareholders and increase the complexity, burden and cost of tax compliance.
Our expansion within the United States and any future international expansion strategy will subject us to additional costs and risks and our plans may not be successful.
Our success depends in significant part on our ability to expand into additional markets in the United States and abroad. As of December 31, 2022, we were licensed to sell renters, homeowners, pet and/or car insurance policies in 50 states of the United States and Washington D.C. We operate in 38 of those states and Washington D.C. covering approximately 92% of the U.S. population. We have targeted coverage across all 50 states, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to provide nationwide coverage in the near term or at all. Moreover, one or more states could revoke our license to operate, or implement additional regulatory hurdles that could inhibit our ability to obtain or maintain our license in such states.
In addition to growing our domestic business, we have started expanding our presence internationally, particularly in Europe. We currently hold a pan-European license, which enables us to sell in 30 countries across Europe, and commenced operating in Germany in 2019, and in the Netherlands and France in 2020. In October, 2022, the Company began selling contents insurance in the United Kingdoms (“UK”) on a cross border basis under the UK’s Temporary Permission Regime. The Company also registered two UK branches: (i) Lemonade Insurance N.V., UK Branch and its affiliate (ii) Lemonade Agency B.V., UK Branch as part of its process to become a fully licensed insurance branch in the UK. Operating outside of the United States may require significant management attention to oversee operations over a broad geographic area with varying cultural norms and customs, in addition to placing strain on our finance, analytics, compliance, legal, engineering, and operations teams. Moreover, international operations are subject to risks and uncertainties inherent in operating in these regions, including political unrest, such as the current situation with Ukraine and Russia. We may incur significant operating expenses and may not be successful in our international expansion for a variety of reasons, including:
•obtaining any required government approvals, licenses or other authorizations;
•complying with varying laws and regulatory standards, including with respect to the insurance business and insurance distribution, capital and outsourcing requirements, data privacy, tax and local regulatory restrictions;
•recruiting and retaining talented and capable employees in foreign countries;
•competition from local incumbents that better understand the local market, may market and operate more effectively and may enjoy greater local affinity or awareness;
•differing demand dynamics, which may make our product offerings less successful;
•currency exchange restrictions or costs and exchange rate fluctuations;
•operating in jurisdictions that do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the United States; and
•limitations on the repatriation and investment of funds as well as foreign currency exchange restrictions.
Our limited experience in operating our business internationally increases the risk that any potential future expansion efforts that we may undertake may not be successful. If we invest substantial time and resources to expand our operations internationally and are unable to manage these risks effectively, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
In addition, international expansion may increase our risks in complying with various laws and standards, including with respect to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, export controls, and trade and economic sanctions.
Expansion into new markets here and abroad will require additional investments by us in both regulatory approvals and marketing. These incremental costs may include hiring additional personnel, as well as engaging third-party service providers and other research and development costs. If we fail to grow our geographic footprint or geographic growth occurs at a slower rate than expected, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates may adversely affect our financial results.
Since we conduct limited operations in Israel and Europe, portions of our revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities are denominated in New Israeli Shekels, Euros and GBP pounds. Because our consolidated financial statements are presented in U.S. dollars, we must translate non-U.S. dollar denominated revenues, income and expenses, as well as assets and liabilities, into U.S. dollars at exchange rates in effect during or at the end of each reporting period. Therefore, increases or decreases in the value of the U.S. dollar against the other currencies may affect our revenues, income and the value of balance sheet items denominated in foreign currencies.
External events such as Brexit, global pandemics, the ongoing uncertainty regarding actual and potential shifts in U.S. and foreign, trade, economic and other policies, the passage of U.S. taxation reform legislation, and concerns over interest rates (particularly short-term rates) each have caused, and may continue to cause, significant volatility in currency exchange rates, especially among the U.S. dollar, the pound sterling and the euro. If global economic and market conditions, or economic conditions in the United Kingdom, European Union, the United States or other key markets remain uncertain or deteriorate further, the value of the pound sterling and euro and the global credit markets may further weaken.
Risks Relating to Our Industry
The insurance business, including the market for renters, homeowners, pet, life and car insurance, is historically cyclical in nature, and we may experience periods with excess underwriting capacity and unfavorable premium rates, which could adversely affect our business.
Historically, insurers have experienced significant fluctuations in operating results due to competition, frequency and severity of catastrophic events, levels of capacity, adverse litigation trends, regulatory constraints, general economic conditions, and other factors. The supply of insurance is related to prevailing prices, the level of insured losses and the level of capital available to the industry that, in turn, may fluctuate in response to changes in rates of return on investments being earned in the insurance industry. As a result, the insurance business historically has been a cyclical industry characterized by periods of intense price competition due to excessive underwriting capacity as well as periods when shortages of capacity increased premium levels. Demand for insurance depends on numerous factors, including the frequency and severity of catastrophic events, levels of capacity, the introduction of new capital providers and general economic conditions. All of these factors fluctuate and may contribute to price declines generally in the insurance industry.
We cannot predict with certainty whether market conditions will improve, remain constant or deteriorate. Negative market conditions may impair our ability to underwrite insurance at rates we consider appropriate and commensurate relative to the risk assumed. Additionally, negative market conditions could result in a decline in policies sold, an increase in the frequency of claims and premium defaults, and an uptick in the frequency of falsification of claims. If we cannot underwrite insurance at appropriate rates, our ability to transact business will be materially and adversely affected. Any of these factors could lead to an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
We are subject to extensive insurance industry regulations.
As of December 31, 2022, we were licensed to sell renters, homeowners, pet and/or car insurance policies in 50 states of the United States, and operate in 38 of those states, and Washington, D.C. We also hold a pan-European license, which enables us to sell in 30 countries across Europe, and commenced operating in Germany in 2019, and in the Netherlands and in France in 2020. We also began selling contents insurance in the U.K. on a cross border basis under the UK’s Temporary Permission Regime in October 2022.
In the United States, each state regulator retains the authority to license insurers in their states, and an insurer generally may not operate in a state in which it is not licensed. Accordingly, we are not permitted to sell insurance to residents of the remaining states and territories of the United States, which is likely to put us at a disadvantage among many of our competitors that have been in business much longer than us and are licensed to sell their insurance products in most, if not all, U.S. jurisdictions.
We are subject to extensive regulation and supervision in the states in which we transact business by the individual state insurance departments. This regulation is generally designed to protect the interests of customers, and not necessarily the interests of insurers or agents, their shareholders or other investors. Numerous aspects of our insurance business are subject to regulation, including, but not limited to, premium rates, mandatory covered
risks, limitations on the ability to renew or elect not to renew business, prohibited exclusions, licensing and appointment of agents, restrictions on the size of risks that may be insured under a single policy, reserves and provisions for unearned premiums, losses and other obligations, deposits of securities for the benefit of customers, investments and capital, policy forms and coverages, advertising and other conduct, including restrictions on the use of credit information and other factors in underwriting, as well as other underwriting and claims practices. To the extent we decide to expand our current product offerings to include other insurance products, this would subject us to additional regulatory requirements and scrutiny in each state in which we elect to offer such products. States have also adopted legislation defining and prohibiting unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts and practices in the business of insurance. Prohibited practices include, but are not limited to, misrepresentations, false advertising, coercion, disparaging other insurers, unfair claims settlement procedures, and discrimination in the business of insurance. Noncompliance with any of such state statute may subject us to regulatory action by the relevant state insurance regulator, and, in certain states, private litigation. States also regulate various aspects of the contractual relationships between insurers and independent agents.
Such laws, rules and regulations are usually overseen and enforced by the various state insurance departments, as well as through private rights of action and by state attorneys general. Such regulations or enforcement actions are often responsive to current consumer and political sensitivities, such as homeowners insurance rates and coverage forms, or which may arise after a major event. Such rules and regulations may result in rate suppression, limit our ability to manage our exposure to unprofitable or volatile risks, or lead to fines, premium refunds or other adverse consequences. The federal government also may regulate aspects of our businesses, such as the protection of consumer confidential information or the use of consumer insurance (credit) scores to underwrite and assess the risk of customers under the Fair Credit Reporting Act ("FCRA"). Among other things, the FCRA requires insurance companies to have a permissible purpose before obtaining and using a consumer report for underwriting purposes, as well as comply with related notice and recordkeeping requirements. Failure to comply with federal requirements under the FCRA or any other applicable federal laws would subject us to regulatory fines and other sanctions. In addition, given our short operating history to-date and rapid speed of growth, we are particularly vulnerable to regulators identifying errors in the policy forms we use, the rates we charge, and our customer communications. As a result of such noncompliance, regulators could impose fines, rebates or other penalties, including cease-and-desist orders for an individual state, or all states, until the identified noncompliance is rectified.
The NYDFS, the insurance regulatory authority in the State of New York, may conduct special or targeted examinations to address particular concerns or issues at any time. Insurance regulators of other states in which Lemonade Insurance Company is licensed to sell insurance may also conduct periodic examinations. The results of these examinations can give rise to regulatory orders requiring remedial, injunctive, or other corrective action.
Our ability to retain state licenses depends on our ability to meet licensing requirements established by the NAIC and adopted by each state, subject to variations across states. If we are unable to satisfy the applicable licensing requirements of any particular state, we could lose our license to do business in such state, which would result in the temporary or permanent cessation of our operations in that state. Alternatively, if we are unable to satisfy applicable state licensing requirements, we may be subject to additional regulatory oversight, have our license suspended, or be subject to seizure of assets. Any such events could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition. See "Regulation — Required Licensing."
In addition, as a condition to writing business in certain states, insurers are required to participate in various pools or risk sharing mechanisms or to accept certain classes of risk, regardless of whether such risks meet their underwriting requirements for voluntary business. Some states also limit or impose restrictions on the ability of an insurer to withdraw from certain classes of business. New York, among other states, imposes significant restrictions on a company's ability to materially reduce its exposures or to withdraw from certain lines of business. The state insurance departments can impose significant charges on an insurer in connection with a market withdrawal or refuse to approve withdrawal plans on the grounds that they could lead to market disruption. Laws and regulations that limit cancellation and non-renewal of policies or that subject withdrawal plans to prior approval requirements may significantly restrict our ability to exit unprofitable markets. Such actions and related regulatory restrictions may limit our ability to reduce our potential exposure to hurricane-related losses.
Further, federal, state and/or local government actions to address the impact of COVID-19 may adversely affect us. Regulatory restrictions or requirements have impacted or may impact pricing, risk selection and our rights and obligations with respect to our policies and customers, including our ability to cancel and non-renew policies and to collect premiums. Several state regulators have issued orders, and may issue additional orders, requiring
insurers to issue premium refunds and offer deferred payment options, and regulators in other states could take similar actions or renew such actions that have expired. Many insurers, including us, have voluntarily provided, and may further provide, deferred payment options to customers. It is also possible that changes in economic conditions and steps taken by federal, state and local governments in response to COVID-19 could require an increase in taxes at the federal, state and local levels, which would adversely impact our results of operations.
Our European insurance entities, Lemonade Insurance N.V., Lemonade Agency B.V. and Lemonade B.V., are subject to primary supervision by the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, "DNB") as the supervisory authority of its home member state, the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten, "AFM"), and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, "BaFin") as the supervisory authority of a host member state. DNB and AFM expect firms to avoid actions that jeopardize compliance with their statutory objectives and applicable rules and regulations and have extensive powers to intervene in the affairs of a regulated firm. When DNB is concerned that an insurer may present a risk, this may lead to negative consequences, including the requirement to maintain a higher level of regulatory capital (via capital "add-ons" under the Solvency II Directive) to match the higher perceived risks and enforcement action where the risks identified breach applicable rules and regulations. In the case of a breach of our license requirements or obligations arising from the applicable rules and regulations, we may be subject to the DNB and the AFM's sanctions, including (public) formal warnings, orders to adopt a certain course of conduct, incremental penalties and administrative fines, revocation of an undertaking license and, in the case of insurers, where the breach relates to material prudential shortcomings, emergency measures (including the appointment of an administrator or the imposition of measures aimed at winding-up the undertaking). Any such events could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition. See "Business - Regulation - European Regulation."
State insurance regulators impose additional reporting requirements regarding enterprise risk on insurance holding company systems, with which we must comply as an insurance holding company.
In the past decade, various state insurance regulators have increased their focus on risks within an insurer's holding company system that may pose enterprise risk to the insurer. In 2012, the NAIC adopted significant changes to the insurance holding company act and regulations (the "NAIC Amendments"). The NAIC Amendments, when adopted by the various states, are designed to respond to perceived gaps in the regulation of insurance holding company systems in the United States. One of the major changes is a requirement that an insurance holding company system's ultimate controlling person submit annually to its lead state insurance regulator an "enterprise risk report" that identifies activities, circumstances or events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer that, if not remedied properly, are likely to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole. Other changes include requiring a controlling person to submit prior notice to its domiciliary insurance regulator of a divestiture of control, having detailed minimum requirements for cost sharing and management agreements between an insurer and its affiliates and expanding of the agreements between an insurer and its affiliates to be filed with its domiciliary insurance regulator. The NAIC Amendments must be adopted by the individual state legislatures and insurance regulators in order to be effective. New York State, our main domiciliary state for our insurance subsidiary, includes a form of the enterprise risk report requirement.
In 2012, the NAIC also adopted the Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment Model Act (the "ORSA Model Act"). The ORSA Model Act, when adopted by the various states, will require an insurance holding company system's Chief Risk Officer to submit annually to its lead state insurance regulator an Own Risk and Solvency Assessment Summary Report ("ORSA"). The ORSA is a confidential internal assessment appropriate to the nature, scale and complexity of an insurer, conducted by that insurer of the material and relevant risks identified by the insurer associated with an insurer's current business plan and the sufficiency of capital resources to support those risks. The ORSA Model Act must be adopted by the individual state legislature and insurance regulators in order to be effective. While New York has not formally passed the ORSA requirement, it has implemented a form "F" filing requirement that is the initial response to the ORSA Model Act. We cannot predict the impact, if any, that the NAIC Amendments, compliance with the ORSA Model Act, or any other regulatory requirements may have on our business, financial condition or results of operations. See "Business - Regulation."
The increasing adoption by states of cybersecurity regulations could impose additional compliance burdens on us and expose us to additional liability.
In response to the growing threat of cyber-attacks in the insurance industry, certain jurisdictions, including New York, have begun to consider new cybersecurity measures, including the adoption of cybersecurity regulations. In March 2017, the NYDFS promulgated Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies, which requires covered financial institutions, including Lemonade Insurance Company, to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program and implement and maintain cybersecurity policies and procedures with specific requirements. Additionally, on October 24, 2017, the NAIC adopted its Insurance Data Security Model Law, intended to serve as model legislation for states to enact in order to govern cybersecurity and data protection practices of insurers, insurance agents, and other licensed entities registered under state insurance laws. Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia have adopted versions of the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law, each with a different effective date, and other states may adopt versions of the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law in the future. Although we take steps to comply with financial industry cybersecurity regulations and believe we are materially compliant with their requirements, our failure to comply with new or existing cybersecurity regulations could result in regulatory actions and other penalties. In addition, efforts to comply with new or existing cybersecurity regulations could impose significant costs on our business, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations. See "Business - Regulation of Enterprise Risk, Cybersecurity, and Other Recent Developments".
Severe weather events and other catastrophes, including the effects of climate change and global pandemics, are inherently unpredictable and may have a material adverse effect on our financial results and financial condition.
Our renters, homeowners, pet, life and car insurance business is exposed to the risk of severe weather conditions and other catastrophes. Severe weather events include, but are not limited to, winter storms, rain, hail, and high winds. The incidence and severity of weather conditions are largely unpredictable. Catastrophes can be caused by various events, such as wildfires, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tropical storms, earthquakes, windstorms, hailstorms, severe thunderstorms, fires, and other non-natural events such as explosions, riots, terrorism, or war.
The incidence and severity of severe weather conditions and catastrophes are inherently unpredictable and the occurrence of one catastrophe does not render the possibility of another catastrophe greater or lower. The extent of losses from a catastrophe is a function of both the total amount of insured exposure in the area affected by the event and the severity of the event. In particular, severe weather and other catastrophes could significantly increase our costs due to a surge in claims following such events and/or legal and regulatory changes in response to catastrophes that may impair our ability to limit our liability under our policies. Severe weather conditions and catastrophes can cause greater losses for us, which can cause our liquidity and financial condition to deteriorate. Resulting reductions in our capital could materially adversely affect our ability to underwrite new insurance policies. In addition, we may not be able to obtain reinsurance coverage at reasonable rates and in amounts adequate to mitigate the risks associated with severe weather conditions and other catastrophes. While we only work with reinsurers whom we believe have acceptable credit, if our reinsurers are unable to pay for the claims for which they are responsible, we could be exposed to additional liability, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Climate change may affect the occurrence of certain natural events, such as an increase in the frequency or severity of wind and thunderstorm events, eruptions of volcanoes, and tornado or hailstorm events due to increased convection in the atmosphere; more frequent wildfires in certain geographies; higher incidence of deluge flooding and the potential for an increase in severity of the hurricane events due to higher sea surface temperatures. Additionally, climate change may cause an impact on the demand, price and availability of homeowners and renters insurance and reinsurance coverages, as well as the value of our investment portfolio. Due to significant variability associated with future changing climate conditions, we are unable to predict the impact climate change will have on our business.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, with pockets of resurgence and the emergence of variant strains contributing to continued uncertainty about its scope, duration, severity, trajectory, and lasting impact. We continue to assess and update our business continuity plans in the context of this pandemic, COVID-19 has impacted and may further impact the broader economies of affected countries, including negatively impacting
economic growth, the proper functioning of financial and capital markets, foreign currency exchange rates, and interest rates. The pandemic has caused an economic slowdown of potentially extended duration, and it is possible that it could cause a global recession. This could result in an increase in fraudulent claims or a decrease in apartment rentals or home sales, an increase in costs associated with claims under our policies, as well as an increase in the number of customers experiencing difficulty paying premiums, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Climate risks, including risks associated with disruptions caused by the transition to a low-carbon economy, could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.
The effects of climate change continue to create an alarming level of concern for the state of the global environment. As a result, the global business community has increased its political and social awareness surrounding the issue, and the United States has entered into international agreements in an attempt to lessen expected increases in global temperatures, such as reentering the Paris Agreement. Further, the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and federal and state regulatory agencies continue to propose and enact initiatives to supplement the global effort to combat climate change. If new legislation or regulation is enacted, we could incur increased costs and capital expenditures to comply with its limitations, which may impact our financial condition and operating performance.
For example, on November 21, 2021, the NYDFS issued Guidance for New York Domestic Insurers on Managing the Financial Risks from Climate Change, pursuant to which domestic insurers are expected to take a strategic approach to managing climate risks. The guidance imposed an initial deadline of August 15, 2022, under which domestic insurers were expected to implement certain board and management governance measures and develop specific plans to implement certain organizational structure changes. NYDFS is expected to issue further guidance on timing regarding more complex expectations, such as those relating to risk appetite, analysis of the impact of climate risks on existing risk factors, reflection of climate risks in the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA), scenario analysis, and public disclosure. In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve recently identified climate change as a systemic risk to the economy. It also reported that a gradual change in investor sentiment regarding climate risk introduces the possibility of abrupt tipping points or significant swings in sentiment, which could create unpredictable follow-on effects in financial markets. If this occurred, we could be negatively impacted by the general economic decline, including by possible negative impacts to our stock price.
Increasing scrutiny, actions and changing expectations from investors, clients, regulators and our employees with respect to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters may impose additional costs on us, impact our access to capital, or expose us to new or additional risks.
Increased focus, including from governmental organizations, investors, employees and clients, on ESG matters such as environmental stewardship, climate change, diversity, equity and inclusion, pay equity, racial justice, workplace conduct and cybersecurity and data privacy, may result in increased costs (including but not limited to increased costs related to compliance and stakeholder engagement), impact our reputation, or otherwise affect our business performance. Negative public perception, adverse publicity or negative comments in social media could damage our reputation or harm our relationships with regulators and the communities in which we operate, if we do not, or are not perceived to, adequately address these issues, including if we fail to demonstrate progress towards any current or future our ESG goals. Any harm to our reputation could negatively impact employee engagement and retention and the willingness of customers to do business with us.
ESG matters have been the subject of increased focus by certain regulators, including in the U.S., EU, and the UK. In the event divergent ESG disclosure obligations arise between the U.S., UK and the EU, this may also present an increased compliance risk if we are required to comply with different regulatory standards. Additionally, conflicting ESG policies within jurisdictions, such as between federal and some state policies in the U.S., is leading to a complex and fragmented regulatory environment, which may be difficult to navigate.
It is possible that stakeholders may not be satisfied with our ESG practices or the speed of their adoption. At the same time, certain stakeholders might not be satisfied that we have adopted ESG practices at all. Actual or perceived shortcomings with respect to our ESG practices and reporting could negatively impact our business. We could also incur additional costs and require additional resources to monitor, report, and comply with various ESG practices.
In addition, a variety of organizations have developed ratings to measure the performance of companies on ESG topics, and the results of some of these assessments are widely publicized. Such ratings are used by some investors to inform their investment and voting decisions. In addition, many investors have created their own proprietary ratings that inform their investment and voting decisions. Unfavorable ratings of the Company or our industry, as well as omission of inclusion of our stock into ESG-oriented investment funds may lead to negative investor sentiment and the diversion of investment to other companies or industries, which could have a negative impact on our stock price and our access to and cost of capital.
We expect our results of operations to fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis. In addition, our operating results and operating metrics are subject to seasonality and volatility, which could result in fluctuations in our quarterly revenues and operating results or in perceptions of our business prospects.
Our revenue and results of operations could vary significantly from period to period and may fail to match expectations as a result of a variety of factors, some of which are outside of our control. Our results may vary as a result of fluctuations in the number of customers purchasing our insurance products and fluctuations in the timing and amount of our expenses. In addition, the insurance industry, and particularly renters and homeowners insurance, are subject to their own cyclical trends and uncertainties, including extreme weather which is often seasonal and may result in volatility in claims reporting and payment patterns. Fluctuations and variability across the industry may affect our revenue. As a result of the potential variations in our revenue and results of operations, period-to-period comparisons may not be meaningful and the results of any one period should not be relied on as an indication of future performance. In addition, our results of operations may not meet the expectations of investors or public market analysts who follow us, which may adversely affect our stock price.
We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, seasonal fluctuations in our revenues and resulting fluctuations in our rate of growth as a result of insurance spending patterns. Specifically, our revenues may be proportionately higher in our third fiscal quarter due to the seasonality of when renters and homeowners move into new homes, which historically occurs in the months of July, August and September. Accordingly, the amount of growth we experience may also be greater in the third quarter. In addition, as our business expands and matures, other seasonality trends may develop and the existing seasonality and customer behavior that we experience may change. Volatility in our key operating metrics or their rates of growth could have a negative impact on our financial results and investor perceptions of our business prospects and a failure to achieve our quarterly forecasts or to meet or exceed the expectations of research analysts or investors will cause our stock price to decline.
We rely on data from our customers and third parties for pricing and underwriting our insurance policies, handling claims and maximizing automation, the unavailability or inaccuracy of which could limit the functionality of our products and disrupt our business.
We use data, technology and intellectual property licensed from unaffiliated third parties in certain of our products, including insurance industry proprietary information that we license from Insurance Services Office, Inc. ("ISO"), and we may license additional third-party technology and intellectual property in the future. Any errors or defects in this third-party technology and intellectual property could result in errors that could harm our brand and business. In addition, licensed technology and intellectual property may not continue to be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all. Also, should ISO refuse to license its proprietary information to us on the same terms that it offers to our competitors, we could be placed at a significant competitive disadvantage.
Further, although we believe that there are currently adequate replacements for the third-party technology and intellectual property we presently use other than proprietary information provided by ISO, the loss of our right to use any of this technology and intellectual property could result in delays in producing or delivering affected products until equivalent technology or intellectual property is identified, licensed or otherwise procured, and integrated. Our business would be disrupted if any technology and intellectual property we license from others or functional equivalents of this software were either no longer available to us or no longer offered to us on commercially reasonable terms. In either case, we would be required either to attempt to redesign our products to function with technology and intellectual property available from other parties or to develop these components ourselves, which would result in increased costs and could result in delays in product sales and the release of new product offerings. Alternatively, we might be forced to limit the features available in affected products. Any of these results could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected due to limitations in the analytical models used to assess and predict our exposure to catastrophe losses.
Along with others in the insurance industry, models developed internally and by third party vendors are used along with our own historical data in assessing property insurance exposure to catastrophe losses. These models assume various conditions and probability scenarios; however, they do not necessarily accurately predict future losses or measure losses currently incurred. Further, the accuracy of such models may be negatively impacted by changing climate conditions. Catastrophe models use historical information and scientific research about natural events, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, as well as detailed information about our in-force business. This information is used in connection with pricing and risk management activities. However, since actual catastrophic events vary considerably, there are limitations with respect to its usefulness in predicting losses in any reporting period. Other limitations are evident in significant variations in estimates between models, material increases and decreases in results due to model changes and refinements of the underlying data elements and actual conditions that are not yet well understood or may not be properly incorporated into the models.
We are subject to payment processing risk.
We currently rely exclusively on one third-party vendor to provide payment processing services, including the processing of payments from credit cards and debit cards, and our business would be disrupted if this vendor becomes unwilling or unable to provide these services to us and we are unable to find a suitable replacement on a timely basis. If we or our processing vendor fail to maintain adequate systems for the authorization and processing of credit card transactions, it could cause one or more of the major credit card companies to disallow our continued use of their payment products. In addition, if these systems fail to work properly and, as a result, we do not charge our customers' credit cards on a timely basis or at all, our business, revenue, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.
The payment methods that we offer also subject us to potential fraud and theft by criminals, who are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, seeking to obtain unauthorized access to or exploit weaknesses that may exist in the payment systems. If we fail to comply with applicable rules or requirements for the payment methods we accept, or if payment-related data are compromised due to a breach of data, we may be liable for significant costs incurred by payment card issuing banks and other third parties or subject to fines and higher transaction fees, or our ability to accept or facilitate certain types of payments may be impaired. In addition, our customers could lose confidence in certain payment types, which may result in a shift to other payment types or potential changes to our payment systems that may result in higher costs. If we fail to adequately control fraudulent credit card transactions, we may face civil liability, diminished public perception of our security measures, and significantly higher credit card-related costs, each of which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Our success depends upon the insurance industry continuing to move online at its current pace and the continued growth and acceptance of online products and services as effective alternatives to traditional offline products and services.
We provide renters, homeowners, pet, life and car insurance products through our website and our online app that compete with traditional offline counterparts. We do not generally offer insurance through traditional, offline brokers. We believe that the continued growth and acceptance of online products and services generally will depend, to a large extent, on the continued growth in commercial use of the internet and the continued migration of traditional offline markets and industries online.
Purchasers of insurance may develop the perception that purchasing insurance products online is not as effective as purchasing such products through a broker or other traditional offline methods, and the homeowners and renters insurance markets may not migrate online as quickly as (or at the levels that) we expect. Moreover, if, for any reason, an unfavorable perception develops that data automation, artificial intelligence and/or bots are less efficacious than traditional offline methods of purchasing insurance, underwriting, claims processing, and other functions that use data automation, artificial intelligence and/or bots, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
Our actual incurred losses may be greater than our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
Our financial condition and results of operations depends on our ability to accurately assess potential losses and loss adjustment expenses under the terms of the policies we underwrite. Reserves do not represent an exact calculation of liability. Rather, reserves represent an estimate of what the expected ultimate settlement and administration of claims will cost, and the ultimate liability may be greater or less than the current estimate. In our industry, there is always the risk that reserves may prove inadequate as it is possible for us to underestimate the cost of claims and claims administration.
We base our estimates on our assessment of known facts and circumstances, as well as estimates of future trends in claim severity, claim frequency, judicial theories of liability, and other factors. These variables are affected by both internal and external events that could increase our exposure to losses, including changes in actuarial projections, claims handling procedures, inflation, severe weather, climate change, economic and judicial trends and legislative changes. We regularly monitor reserves using new information on reported claims and a variety of statistical techniques to update our current estimate. Our estimates could prove to be inadequate, and this underestimation could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition.
Recorded claim reserves, including case reserves and incurred but not reported ("IBNR") claims reserves, are based on our estimates of losses after considering known facts and interpretations of the circumstances, including settlement agreements. Additionally, models that rely on the assumption that past loss development patterns will persist into the future are used. Internal factors are considered including our experience with similar cases, actual claims paid, historical trends involving claim payment patterns, pending levels of unpaid claims, loss management programs, product mix, contractual terms and changes in claim reporting, and settlement practices. External factors are also considered, such as court decisions, changes in law and litigation imposing unintended coverage. We also consider benefits, such as disallowing the use of benefit payment schedules, requiring coverage designed to cover losses that occur in a single policy period to losses that develop continuously over multiple policy periods or requiring the availability of multiple limits. Regulatory requirements and economic conditions are also considered.
Since reserves are estimates of the unpaid portion of losses that have occurred, including IBNR losses, the establishment of appropriate reserves, including reserves for catastrophes, is an inherently uncertain and complex process that is regularly refined to reflect current estimation processes and practices. The ultimate cost of losses may vary materially from recorded reserves and such variance may adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition as the reserves and reinsurance recoverables are reestimated.
If any of our insurance reserves should prove to be inadequate for the reasons discussed above, or for any other reason, we will be required to increase reserves, resulting in a reduction in our net income and stockholders' equity in the period in which the deficiency is identified. Future loss experience substantially in excess of established reserves could also have a material adverse effect on future earnings and liquidity and financial rating, which would affect our ability to attract new business or to retain existing customers.
Our insurance subsidiaries are subject to minimum capital and surplus requirements, and our failure to meet these requirements could subject us to regulatory action.
Our insurance subsidiaries are subject to risk-based capital standards and other minimum capital and surplus requirements imposed under the laws of the State of New York and Delaware, respectively. The risk-based capital standards, based upon the Risk-Based Capital Model Act adopted by the NAIC, require our insurance subsidiaries to report their results of risk-based capital calculations to the NYDFS, or DEDFS, as applicable and the NAIC. These risk-based capital standards provide for different levels of regulatory attention depending upon the ratio of an insurance company's total adjusted capital, as calculated in accordance with NAIC guidelines, to its authorized control level risk-based capital. Authorized control level risk-based capital is determined using the NAIC's risk-based capital formula, which measures the minimum amount of capital that an insurance company needs to support its overall business operations.
An insurance company with total adjusted capital that is less than 200% of its authorized control level risk-based capital is at a company action level, which would require the insurance company to file a risk-based capital plan that, among other things, contains proposals of corrective actions the Company intends to take that are reasonably expected to result in the elimination of the Company action level event. Additional action level events occur when the insurer's total adjusted capital falls below 150%, 100%, and 70% of its authorized control level risk-based capital. The lower the percentage, the more severe the regulatory response, including, in the event of a
mandatory control level event (total adjusted capital falls below 70% of the insurer's authorized control level risk-based capital), placing the insurance company into receivership. As of December 31, 2022, our risk-based capital ratio was 376% for LIC and 440% for MIC.
In addition, our insurance subsidiaries are required to maintain certain minimum capital and surplus and to limit its written premiums to specified multiples of its capital and surplus. The insurance subsidiaries could exceed these ratios if its volume increases faster than anticipated or if its surplus declines due to catastrophe or non-catastrophe losses or excessive underwriting and operational expenses.
Any failure by our insurance subsidiaries to meet the applicable risk-based capital or minimum statutory capital requirements or the writings ratio limitations imposed by the laws of the State of New York or Delaware, as applicable (or other states where currently or may in the future conduct business) could subject them to further examination or corrective action imposed by state regulators, including limitations on our writing of additional business, state supervision, or liquidation.
Any changes in existing risk-based capital requirements, minimum statutory capital requirements, or applicable writings ratios may require us to increase our statutory capital levels, which we may be unable to do. See "Business - Regulation of Our Business — Risk-Based Capital."
We are subject to assessments and other surcharges from state guaranty funds, and mandatory state insurance facilities, which may reduce our profitability.
The insurance laws of many states subject property and casualty insurers doing business in those states to statutory property and casualty guaranty fund assessments. The purpose of a guaranty fund is to protect customers by requiring that solvent property and casualty insurers pay the insurance claims of insolvent insurers. These guaranty associations generally pay these claims by assessing solvent insurers proportionately based on each insurer's share of voluntary premiums written in the state. While most guaranty associations provide for recovery of assessments through subsequent rate increases, surcharges or premium tax credits, there is no assurance that insurers will ultimately recover these assessments, which could be material, particularly following a large catastrophe or in markets which become disrupted.
Maximum contributions required by law in any one year vary by state. We cannot predict with certainty the amount of future assessments because they depend on factors outside our control, such as insolvencies of other insurance companies. Significant assessments could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. See "Business - Regulation of Our Business — Insolvency Funds and Associations, Mandatory Pools, and Insurance Facilities."
Our ability to compete in the property and casualty insurance industry and our ability to expand our business is partially dependent on us maintaining our Demotech, Inc. rating, and may be negatively affected by the fact that we do not have a rating from A.M. Best.
Our insurance subsidiary, LIC, currently has a Financial Stability Rating ("FSR") of 'A' Exceptional from Demotech, Inc., a financial analysis firm that provides FSRs as well as consulting services for property and casualty insurance companies and title underwriters. Demotech, Inc. provides financial stability ratings to insurance companies of all sizes. When providing a rating, Demotech, Inc. evaluates total assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, working capital, administrative expenses, net income, surplus, receivables, amount of business written, industry focus and business model, among others. Below is Demotech, Inc.'s rating scale:
•A" (A Double Prime), Unsurpassed: 100% of insurers with this rating are expected to have a positive surplus at least 18 months from the initial date of rating assignment;
•A' (A Prime), Unsurpassed: 99% of insurers with this rating are expected to have a positive surplus at least 18 months from the initial date of rating assignment;
•A, Exceptional: 97% of insurers with this rating are expected to have a positive surplus at least 18 months from the initial date of rating assignment;
•S, Substantial: 95% of insurers with this rating are expected to have a positive surplus at least 18 months from the initial date of rating assignment;
•M, Moderate: 90% of insurers with this rating are expected to have a positive surplus at least 18 months from the initial date of rating assignment; and
•L, Licensed: These companies have been assessed but have not been given one of the financial strength ratings listed above.
While our Demotech, Inc. rating has proved satisfactory to date, we cannot assure that this rating will remain at its current level and it is possible that some prospective customers may be reluctant to do business with a company that is not rated by A.M. Best. We have never been reviewed by A.M. Best and do not currently intend to seek a rating from A.M. Best. Unlike Demotech, Inc., A.M. Best may penalize companies that are highly leveraged, including those companies that utilize reinsurance to support premium writings. We do not plan to give up revenues or efficiency of size as a means to qualify for an acceptable A.M. Best rating. Not having an A.M. Best rating may prevent us from expanding our business or limit our access to credit from certain financial institutions, which may in turn limit our ability to compete with large, national insurance companies and certain regional insurance companies.
Performance of our investment portfolio is subject to a variety of investment risks that may adversely affect our financial results.
Our results of operations depend, in part, on the performance of our investment portfolio. We seek to hold a diversified portfolio of investments in accordance with our investment policy and routinely reviewed by our Investment Committee. However, our investments are subject to general economic and market risks as well as risks inherent to particular securities.
Our primary market risk exposures are to changes in interest rates and equity prices. See Part II Item 7A. “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk.” Although in previous years, interest rates have been at or near historic lows, interest rates began and continued to rise through fiscal 2022. A protracted low interest rate environment could place pressure on our net investment income, particularly as it relates to fixed income securities and short-term investments, which, in turn, may adversely affect our operating results. A protracted high interest rate environment could cause the values of our fixed income securities portfolios to decline, with the magnitude of the decline depending on the duration of securities included in our portfolio and the amount by which interest rates increase. Some fixed income securities have call or prepayment options, which create possible reinvestment risk in declining rate environments. Other fixed income securities, such as mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, carry prepayment risk or, in a rising interest rate environment, may not prepay as quickly as expected.
The value of our investment portfolio is subject to the risk that certain investments may default or become impaired due to deterioration in the financial condition of one or more issuers of the securities we hold, or due to deterioration in the financial condition of an insurer that guarantees an issuer's payments on such investments. Downgrades in the credit ratings of fixed maturities also have a significant negative effect on the market valuation of such securities.
Such factors could reduce our net investment income and result in realized investment losses. Our investment portfolio is subject to increased valuation uncertainties when investment markets are illiquid. The valuation of investments is more subjective when markets are illiquid, thereby increasing the risk that the estimated fair value (i.e., the carrying amount) of the securities we hold in our portfolio does not reflect prices at which actual transactions would occur.
We may also invest in marketable equity securities. These securities are carried on the balance sheet at fair market value and are subject to potential losses and declines in market value.
Risks for all types of securities are managed through the application of our investment policy, which establishes investment parameters that include, but are not limited to, maximum percentages of investment in certain types of securities and minimum levels of credit quality, which we believe are within applicable guidelines established by the NAIC and the NYDFS.
Although we seek to preserve our capital, we cannot be certain that our investment objectives will be achieved, and results may vary substantially over time. In addition, although we seek to employ investment strategies that are not correlated with our insurance and reinsurance exposures, losses in our investment portfolio may occur at the same time as underwriting losses and, therefore, exacerbate the adverse effect of the losses on us.
Unexpected changes in the interpretation of our coverage or provisions, including loss limitations and exclusions, in our policies could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.
There can be no assurances that specifically negotiated loss limitations or exclusions in our policies will be enforceable in the manner we intend. As industry practices and legal, judicial, social, and other conditions change, unexpected and unintended issues related to claims and coverage may emerge. For example, many of our policies limit the period during which a customer may bring a claim, which may be shorter than the statutory period under which such claims can be brought against our customers. While these limitations and exclusions help us assess and mitigate our loss exposure, it is possible that a court or regulatory authority could nullify or void a limitation or exclusion or legislation could be enacted modifying or barring the use of such limitations or exclusions. These types of governmental actions could result in higher than anticipated loss and loss adjustment expense, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations. In addition, court decisions, such as the 1995 Montrose decision in California could read policy exclusions narrowly so as to expand coverage, thereby requiring insurers to create and write new exclusions. These issues may adversely affect our business by either broadening coverage beyond our underwriting intent or by increasing the frequency or severity of claims. In some instances, these changes may not become apparent until sometime after we have issued insurance contracts that are affected by the changes. As a result, the full extent of liability under our insurance contracts may not be known for many years after a contract is issued.
Risks Relating to Our Existence as a Public Benefit Corporation
We operate as a Delaware public benefit corporation. As a public benefit corporation, we cannot provide any assurance that we will achieve our public benefit purpose.
As a public benefit corporation, we are required to produce a public benefit or benefits and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner, balancing our stockholders' pecuniary interests, the best interests of those materially affected by our conduct, and the public benefit or benefits identified by our amended and restated certificate of incorporation (the “Amended Charter”). There is no assurance that we will achieve our public benefit purpose or that the expected positive impact from being a public benefit corporation will be realized, which could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, which in turn may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
As a public benefit corporation, we are required to publicly disclose a report at least biennially on our overall public benefit performance and on our assessment of our success in achieving our specific public benefit purpose. If we are not timely or are unable to provide this report, or if the report is not viewed favorably by parties doing business with us or regulators or others reviewing our credentials, our reputation and status as a public benefit corporation may be harmed.
If we lose our certification as a Certified B Corp or our publicly reported B Corp score declines, or if state or federal regulators restrict, delay or otherwise interfere with our ability to make charitable contributions, our reputation could be harmed and our business could be adversely affected.
Our business model and brand could be harmed if we were to lose our certification as a Certified B Corp or if state or federal regulators impede or otherwise delay or restrict our ability to make charitable contributions. Certified B Corp status is a certification that requires us to consider the impact of our decisions on our workers, customers, suppliers, community and the environment. We believe that Certified B Corp status has allowed us to build credibility and trust among our customers. Whether due to our choice or our failure to meet B Lab's certification requirements, any change in our status could create a perception that we are more focused on financial performance and no longer as committed to the values shared by Certified B Corp. Likewise, our reputation could be harmed if our publicly reported B Corp score declines and there is a perception that we are no longer committed to the Certified B Corp standards. Similarly, our reputation could be harmed if we take actions that are perceived to be misaligned with B Lab's values. See "Business — Certified B Corp Status."
Furthermore, state or federal regulators could restrict, delay, or otherwise interfere with our ability to contribute the residual amount left over after paying claims and reinsurance to nonprofits selected by our customers. This could erode customer trust in our products and services, weaken incentives for good customer behavior, and drive down demand for our products and services.
Any such harm to our reputation could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position and results of operations.
As a public benefit corporation, our focus on a specific public benefit purpose and producing a positive effect for society may negatively impact our financial performance.
Unlike traditional corporations, which have a fiduciary duty to focus exclusively on maximizing stockholder value, our directors have a fiduciary duty to consider not only the stockholders' interests, but also the Company's specific public benefit and the interests of other stakeholders affected by our actions. Therefore, we may take actions that we believe will be in the best interests of those stakeholders materially affected by our specific benefit purpose, even if those actions do not maximize our financial results. While we intend for this public benefit designation and obligation to provide an overall net benefit to us and our customers, it could instead cause us to make decisions and take actions without seeking to maximize the income generated from our business, and hence available for distribution to our stockholders. Our pursuit of longer-term or non-pecuniary benefits may not materialize within the timeframe we expect or at all, yet may have an immediate negative effect on any amounts available for distribution to our stockholders. Accordingly, being a public benefit corporation and complying with our related obligations could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.
As a public benefit corporation, we are less attractive as a takeover target than a traditional company would be and, therefore, your ability to realize your investment through an acquisition may be limited. Under Delaware law, a public benefit corporation cannot merge or consolidate with another entity if, as a result of such merger or consolidation, the surviving entity's charter "does not contain the identical provisions identifying the public benefit or public benefits," unless the transaction receives approval from two-thirds of the target public benefit corporation's outstanding voting shares. Additionally, public benefit corporations may also not be attractive targets for activists or hedge fund investors because new directors would still have to consider and give appropriate weight to the public benefit along with shareholder value, and shareholders committed to the public benefit can enforce this through derivative suits. Further, by requiring that board of directors of public benefit corporations consider additional constituencies other than maximizing shareholder value, Delaware public benefit corporation law could potentially make it easier for a board to reject a hostile bid, even where the takeover would provide the greatest short-term financial yield to investors.
Our directors have a fiduciary duty to consider not only our stockholders' interests, but also our specific public benefit and the interests of other stakeholders affected by our actions. If a conflict between such interests arises, there is no guarantee such a conflict would be resolved in favor of our stockholders.
While directors of traditional corporations are required to make decisions they believe to be in the best interests of their stockholders, directors of a public benefit corporation have a fiduciary duty to consider not only the stockholders' interests, but also the company's specific public benefit and the interests of other stakeholders affected by the company's actions. Under Delaware law, directors are shielded from liability for breach of these obligations if they make informed and disinterested decisions that serve a rational purpose. Thus, unlike traditional corporations which must focus exclusively on stockholder value, our directors are not merely permitted, but obligated, to consider our specific public benefit and the interests of other stakeholders. In the event of a conflict between the interests of our stockholders and the interests of our specific public benefit or our other stakeholders, our directors must only make informed and disinterested decisions that serve a rational purpose; thus, there is no guarantee such a conflict would be resolved in favor of our stockholders, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.
As a Delaware public benefit corporation, we may be subject to increased derivative litigation concerning our duty to balance stockholder and public benefit interest, the occurrence of which may have an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
Stockholders of a Delaware public benefit corporation (if they, individually or collectively, own at least two percent of the company's outstanding shares) are entitled to file a derivative lawsuit claiming the directors failed to balance stockholder and public benefit interests. This potential liability does not exist for traditional corporations. Therefore, we may be subject to the possibility of increased derivative litigation, which would require the attention of our management, and, as a result, may adversely impact our management's ability to effectively execute our strategy. Additionally, any such derivative litigation may be costly, which may have an adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.
Risks Relating to Ownership of Our Common Stock
A joint investment committee consisting of our Co-Founders and an executive of SoftBank will have sole voting and dispositive control over the shares owned by the entities affiliated with SoftBank Group Corp. This joint investment committee further concentrates voting power with our Co-Founders, which could limit your ability to influence the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.
As of March 2, 2023, entities affiliated with SoftBank Group Corp. beneficially own, in the aggregate, approximately 17.3% of our outstanding common stock, corresponding to 17.3% of the total voting rights in our Company. SoftBank Group Capital Limited has delegated all of its investment and voting power with respect to the shares of Lemonade that it owns to a three-member joint investment committee consisting of our Co-Founders and an executive of SoftBank, and which shall act unanimously. As a result, each of our Co-Founders will have an effective veto over the voting and dispositive decisions related to our shares held by SoftBank Group Capital Limited. Our Co-Founders' membership in the joint investment committee will increase our Co-Founders' significant influence over matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, the approval of certain business combinations or dispositions, amendments to our Amended Charter or to our amended and restated bylaws (the “Amended Bylaws”), and other extraordinary transactions. In addition, a deadlock among the committee members could hinder the voting of SoftBank Group Capital Limited's shares on any given corporate action. Our Co-Founders, individually or together, may have interests that differ from yours and may influence the joint investment committee to vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests. This concentrated control may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of the Company, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale of the Company, and might ultimately affect the market price of our common stock.
The market price of our common stock may be volatile or decline, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the price you initially paid for our common stock.
The trading price of our common stock could be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The following factors, in addition to other factors described in this "Risk Factors" section and included elsewhere in this document may have a significant impact on the market price of our common stock:
•the occurrence of severe weather conditions and other catastrophes;
•our operating and financial performance, quarterly or annual earnings relative to similar companies;
•publication of research reports or news stories about us, our competitors or our industry, or positive or negative recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;
•the public's reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;
•announcements by us or our competitors of acquisitions, business plans or commercial relationships;
•any major change in our board of directors or senior management, including the departure of either of our Co-Founders;
•additional sales of our common stock by us, our directors, executive officers, principal shareholders, or our Co-Founders;
•adverse market reaction to any indebtedness we may incur or securities we may issue in the future;
•short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions in our common stock;
•exposure to capital market risks related to changes in interest rates, realized investment losses, credit spreads, equity prices, foreign exchange rates and performance of insurance- linked investments;
•our creditworthiness, financial condition, performance, and prospects;
•our dividend policy and whether dividends on our common stock have been, and are likely to be, declared and paid from time to time;
•perceptions of the investment opportunity associated with our common stock relative to other investment alternatives;
•regulatory or legal developments;
•changes in general market, economic, and political conditions;
•conditions or trends in our industry, geographies or customers;
•short selling activities
•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles; and
•threatened or actual litigation or government investigations.
In addition, broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance, and factors beyond our control may cause our stock price to decline rapidly and unexpectedly. In addition, in the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Litigation of this type could result in substantial costs and diversion of management's attention and resources, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects. Any adverse determination in litigation could also subject us to significant liabilities.
Some provisions of our charter documents and Delaware law may have anti-takeover effects that could discourage an acquisition of us by others, even if an acquisition would be beneficial to our stockholders, and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.
Provisions in our Amended Charter and our Amended Bylaws, as well as provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the "DGCL"), could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us or increase the cost of acquiring us, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions include:
•our board of directors is classified into three classes of directors with staggered three-year terms and directors are only able to be removed from office for cause;
•nothing in our Amended Charter precludes future issuances without stockholder approval of the authorized but unissued shares of our common stock;
•advance notice procedures apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders;
•our stockholders will only be able to take action at a meeting of stockholders and not by written consent;
•only our chairman of the board of directors, our co-chief executive officers, our president (in the absence of a chief executive officer), or a majority of the board of directors are authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;
•no provision in our Amended Charter or Amended Bylaws provides for cumulative voting, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
•directors will only be able to be removed for cause;
•certain amendments to our Amended Charter will require the approval of two-thirds of the then outstanding voting power of our capital stock;
•our Amended Bylaws will provide that the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the then-outstanding voting power of our capital stock, voting as a single class, is required for stockholders to amend or adopt any provision of our bylaws;
•our Amended Charter authorizes undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established and shares of which may be issued, without the approval of the holders of our capital stock; and
•certain litigation against us can only be brought in Delaware.
These anti-takeover defenses could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our Company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for you and other stockholders to elect directors of your choosing and cause us to take corporate actions other than those you desire.
Applicable insurance laws may make it difficult to effect a change of control.
Under applicable state insurance laws and regulations, no person may acquire control of a domestic insurer until written approval is obtained from the state insurance commissioner following a public hearing on the proposed acquisition. Such approval would be contingent upon the state insurance commissioner's consideration of a number of factors including, among others, the financial strength of the proposed acquiror, the acquiror's plans for the future operations of the domestic insurer and any anti- competitive results that may arise from the consummation of the acquisition of control. Lemonade Insurance Company is domiciled in New York and Metromile Insurance Company is domiciled in Delaware. Per the applicable laws and regulations of New York and Delaware, respectively, generally no person may acquire control of any insurer, whether by purchase of its securities or otherwise, unless it gives prior notice to the insurer and has received prior approval from the Commissioner of Financial Services. Under New York and Delaware insurance law, an entity is presumed to have control of an insurance company if it owns, directly or indirectly, 10% or more of the voting stock of that insurance company or its parent company. These requirements may discourage potential acquisition proposals and may delay, deter, or prevent a change of control of Lemonade, Inc., including through transactions that some or all of the stockholders might consider to be desirable. See also "Business - Regulation — Changes of Control."
Our Amended Charter designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain litigation that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us.
Our Amended Charter provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed to us or our stockholders by any of our directors, officers, employees or agents, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us arising under the DGCL or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine; provided that, the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce any liability or duty created by the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, or to any claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. By becoming a stockholder in the Company, you will be deemed to have notice of and have consented to the provisions of our Amended Charter related to choice of forum. The choice of forum provision in our Amended Charter may limit our stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us. Additionally, the enforceability of choice of forum provisions in other companies’ governing documents has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that, in connection with any applicable action brought against us, a court could find the choice of forum provisions contained in our Amended
Charter to be inapplicable or unenforceable in such action. If so, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
We are subject to rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC and the NYSE regarding our internal control over financial reporting. Failure to establish and maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.
We are subject to the rules and regulations established from time to time by the SEC and the NYSE. These rules and regulations require, among other things, that we establish and periodically evaluate procedures with respect to our internal control over financial reporting. Such reporting obligations place a considerable strain on our financial and management systems, processes and controls, as well as our personnel.
In addition, we are required to document and test our internal controls over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act so that our management can certify as to the effectiveness of our control over financial reporting by the time our second annual report is filed with the SEC and thereafter, which will require us to document and make changes to our internal control over financial reporting. Section 404(b) requires our independent registered public accounting firm to issue an annual report that addresses the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.
We expect to continue to incur costs related to implementing an internal audit and compliance function in the upcoming years to further enhance our internal control environment. If we identify material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or if we are unable to comply with the demands placed upon us as a public company, including the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, in a timely manner, we may be unable to accurately report our financial results, or report them within the timeframes required by the SEC. We also could become subject to sanctions or investigations by the SE or other regulatory authorities. In addition, if we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion as to the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, when required, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, we may face restricted access to the capital markets and our stock price may be adversely affected.
We depend on the ability of our subsidiaries to transfer funds to us to meet our obligations, and our insurance subsidiaries ability to pay dividends to us is restricted by law.
We are a holding company that transacts a majority of our business through operating subsidiaries. Our ability to meet our operating and financing cash needs depends on the surplus and earnings of our subsidiaries, and upon the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to pay dividends to us.
Payments of dividends by our insurance subsidiaries are restricted by state insurance laws, including laws establishing minimum solvency and liquidity thresholds. The limitations are based on income and surplus determined in accordance with statutory accounting principles, not GAAP. In addition, our insurance subsidiaries could be subject to contractual restrictions in the future, including those imposed by indebtedness we may incur in the future. Our insurance subsidiaries may also face competitive pressures in the future to maintain insurance
financial stability or strength ratings. These restrictions and other regulatory requirements would affect the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to make dividend payments and we may not receive dividends in the amounts necessary to meet our obligations. See "Business - Regulation of Our Business — Restrictions on Paying Dividends."
We do not currently expect to pay any cash dividends.
We do not currently expect to pay any cash dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future. Instead, we intend to retain future earnings, if any, for the future operation and expansion of our business. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our results of operations (including our ability to generate cash flow in excess of expenses and our expected or actual net income), liquidity, cash requirements, financial condition, retained earnings and collateral and capital requirements, general business conditions, contractual restrictions, legal, tax and regulatory limitations, the effect of a dividend or dividends upon our financial strength ratings, and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. See "Dividends."
Because we are a holding company and all of our business is conducted through our subsidiaries, dividends, distributions and other payments from, and cash generated by, our subsidiaries will be our principal sources of cash to fund operations and pay dividends. Accordingly, our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders is dependent on the earnings and distributions of funds from our subsidiaries. Our ability to pay dividends may also be restricted by the terms of any future credit agreement or any of our future debt or preferred equity securities or our subsidiaries. Accordingly, if you purchase shares of our common stock, realization of a gain on your investment will depend on the appreciation of the price of shares of our common stock, which may never occur. Investors seeking cash dividends in the foreseeable future should not purchase our common stock.
There is no guarantee that the warrants may ever be in the money, and they may expire worthless.
The exercise price for Metromile’s warrants that were assumed by us in connection with the merger is $281.51 per share. There can be no assurance that the warrants will be in the money prior to their expiration and, as such, they may expire worthless. We have applied to list these warrants on the NYSE American under the symbol “LMNDWS.”
The terms of the warrants may be amended in a manner that may be adverse to the holders. The warrant agreement, as amended, between American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, as warrant agent, and us, as successor thereunder following the consummation of the merger (the “Metromile Warrant Agreement”), provides that the terms of the warrants may be amended without the consent of any holder to cure any ambiguity or correct any defective provision, but requires the approval by the holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding Public Warrants (as defined in the Metromile Warrant Agreement) to make any change that adversely affects the interests of the registered holders. Accordingly, we may amend the terms of the warrants in a manner adverse to a holder if holders of at least 65% of the then outstanding Public Warrants approve of such amendment. Our ability to amend the terms of the warrants with the consent of at least 65% of the then outstanding Public Warrants is unlimited. Examples of such amendments could be amendments to, among other things, increase the exercise price of the warrants, shorten the exercise period or decrease the number of shares of our common stock purchasable upon exercise of a warrant.
We may redeem your unexpired warrants prior to their exercise at a time that is disadvantageous to you, thereby making your warrants worthless.
We have the ability to redeem outstanding warrants (excluding any Placement Warrants (as defined the Metromile Warrant Agreement) held by the initial holders or their permitted transferees) at any time after they become exercisable and prior to their expiration, at $0.01 per warrant, provided that the last reported sales price (or the closing bid price of our common stock in the event the shares of our common stock are not traded on any specific trading day) of our common stock equals or exceeds $342.01 per share (as adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, reorganizations and the like) on each of 20 trading days within the 30 trading-day period ending on the third business day prior to the date on which we send proper notice of such redemption, provided that on the date we give notice of redemption and during the entire period thereafter until the time we redeems the warrants, we have an effective registration statement under the Securities Act covering the shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants and a current prospectus relating to them is available. If and when the warrants become redeemable by us, we may exercise its redemption right even if we are unable to register or qualify the
underlying securities for sale under all applicable state securities laws. Redemption of the outstanding warrants could force a warrant holder: (i) to exercise its warrants and pay the exercise price therefore at a time when it may be disadvantageous for it to do so, (ii) to sell its warrants at the then-current market price when it might otherwise wish to hold its warrants or (iii) to accept the nominal redemption price which, at the time the outstanding warrants are called for redemption, will be substantially less than the market value of its warrants
Risks Relating to the Mergers with Metromile and the Combined Company
Failure to attract, motivate and retain executives and other key employees could diminish the anticipated benefits of the mergers.
The success of the mergers will depend in part on the combined company’s ability to retain the talents and dedication of the professionals currently employed. It is possible that these employees may decide not to remain with the combined company. If key employees terminate their employment, or if an insufficient number of employees are retained to maintain effective operations, the combined company’s business activities may be adversely affected and management’s attention may be diverted from successfully integrating Lemonade and Metromile to hiring suitable replacements, all of which may cause the combined company’s business to suffer. In addition, Lemonade may not be able to locate suitable replacements for any key employees that leave or offer employment to potential replacements on reasonable terms. In addition, there could be disruptions to or distractions for the workforce and management, including disruptions associated with integrating employees into the combined company. No assurance can be given that the combined company will be able to attract or retain key employees of Lemonade and Metromile to the same extent that those companies have been able to attract or retain their own employees in the past.
The mergers involved substantial costs, including substantial costs we have incurred post-closing.
Lemonade incurred and expects to continue to incur non-recurring costs associated with combining the operations of Lemonade and Metromile, as well as transaction fees and other costs that were incurred related to the closing of the mergers. These costs and expenses include fees paid to financial, legal and accounting advisors, facilities and systems consolidation costs, severance and other potential employment-related costs, filing fees, printing expenses and other related charges.
The combined company incurred and expects to continue to incur restructuring and integration costs subsequent to the closing of the mergers. The costs related to restructuring will be expensed as a cost of the ongoing results of operations of the combined company. Although Lemonade expects that the elimination of duplicative costs, strategic benefits, and additional income, as well as the realization of other efficiencies related to the integration of the businesses, may offset incremental transaction, merger-related and restructuring costs over time, any net benefit may not be achieved in the near term or at all. While Lemonade has assumed that certain expenses would be incurred in connection with the mergers and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement, there are many factors beyond Lemonade’s control that could affect the total amount or the timing of the ongoing integration and implementation expenses.
Combining the businesses of Lemonade and Metromile may be more difficult, costly or time-consuming than expected and the combined company may fail to realize the anticipated benefits of the mergers, which may adversely affect the combined company’s business results and negatively affect the value of the combined company’s common stock.
The success of the mergers will depend on, among other things, our ability to combine their businesses of Lemonade and Metromile in a manner that facilitates growth opportunities. While we have begun combining and integrating the businesses, we have not finished the process. Finalizing the integration may be more costly or time-consuming than expected and we may not ultimately realize the anticipated benefits of the mergers.
We must successfully finalize the combination of Lemonade and Metromile businesses in a manner that permits these benefits to be realized. In addition, the combined company must achieve the anticipated growth without adversely affecting current revenues and investments in future growth. If the combined company is not able to successfully achieve these objectives, the anticipated benefits of the mergers may not be realized fully, or at all, or may take longer to realize than expected.
An inability to realize the full extent of the anticipated benefits of the mergers and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement, as well as any future delays encountered in the integration process, could have an adverse effect upon the revenues, level of expenses and operating results of the combined company, which may adversely affect the value of the common stock of the combined company.
In addition, the actual integration may result in additional and unforeseen expenses, and the anticipated benefits of the integration plan may not be realized. Actual growth and any potential cost savings, if achieved, may be lower than what we expect and may take longer to achieve than anticipated. If we are not able to adequately address integration challenges, they may be unable to successfully integrate our operations or realize the anticipated benefits of the integration of the two companies.
The failure to successfully integrate the businesses and operations of Lemonade and Metromile in the expected time frame may adversely affect the combined company’s future results.
Lemonade and Metromile operated independently until the completion of the mergers, and continue to operate independently in some respects as we continue to integrate the businesses. There can be no assurances that our businesses can be fully integrated successfully. It is possible that the integration process could ultimately result in the loss of key Lemonade or Metromile employees, the loss of customers, the disruption of either company’s or both companies’ ongoing businesses, inconsistencies in standards, controls, procedures and policies, unexpected integration issues, higher than expected integration costs and an overall post-completion integration process that takes longer than originally anticipated. Specifically, the following issues, among others, must be addressed as we continue to integrate the operations of Lemonade and Metromile in order to realize the anticipated benefits of the mergers so the combined company performs as expected:
•combining the companies’ operations and corporate functions;
•combining the business of Lemonade and Metromile and meeting the capital requirements, in a manner that permits the combined company achieve any cost savings or other synergies anticipated to result from the mergers, the failure of which would result in the anticipated benefits of the mergers not being realized in the time frame currently anticipated or at all;
•integrating personnel from the two companies, especially in the COVID-19 environment which has required employees to work remotely in many locations;
•integrating the companies’ technologies and technologies licensed from third parties;
•integrating and unifying the offerings and services available to customers;
•identifying and eliminating redundant and underperforming functions and assets;
•harmonizing the companies’ operating practices, employee development and compensation programs, internal controls and other policies, procedures and processes;
•maintaining existing agreements with customers, suppliers, distributors and vendors, avoiding delays in entering into new agreements with prospective customers, suppliers, distributors and vendors, and leveraging relationships with such third parties for the benefit of the combined company;
•addressing possible differences in business backgrounds, corporate cultures and management philosophies;
•consolidating the companies’ administrative and information technology infrastructure;
•coordinating distribution and marketing efforts;
•managing the movement of certain positions to different locations;
•coordinating geographically dispersed organizations; and
•effecting actions that may be required in connection with obtaining regulatory or other governmental approvals and consents
In addition, at times the attention of certain members of Lemonade’s management and respective resources may be focused on the integration of the businesses of the two companies and diverted from day-to-day business operations or other opportunities that may have been beneficial to such company, which may disrupt each company’s ongoing business and the business of the combined company.
The combined company may be exposed to increased litigation, which could have an adverse effect on the combined company’s business and operations.
In the future, we may be exposed to increased litigation from stockholders, customers, suppliers, distributors, consumers and other third parties due to the combination of Lemonade’s and Metromile’s businesses. Such litigation may have an adverse impact on the combined company’s business and results of operations or may cause disruptions to the combined company’s operations.
General Risks
If we are unable to make acquisitions and investments, or successfully integrate them into our business, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
As part of our business strategy, we will continue to consider a wide array of potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions of businesses, new technologies, services and other assets and strategic investments that complement our business. We may evaluate target companies and make acquisitions in the future. There is no assurance that such acquired businesses will be successfully integrated into our business or generate substantial revenue.
Acquisitions such as the acquisition of Metromile, involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business and negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations, including:
•intense competition for suitable acquisition targets, which could increase prices and adversely affect our ability to consummate deals on favorable or acceptable terms;
•failure or material delay in closing a transaction, including as a result of regulatory review and approvals;
•inadequacy of reserves for losses and loss expenses;
•quality of their data and underwriting processes;
•conditions imposed by regulatory agencies that make the realization of cost-savings through integration of operations more difficult;
•difficulties in obtaining regulatory approvals on our ability to be an acquirer;
•a need for additional capital that was not anticipated at the time of the acquisition;
•transaction-related lawsuits or claims;
•difficulties in integrating the technologies, operations, existing contracts and personnel of an acquired company;
•difficulties in retaining key employees or business partners of an acquired company;
•diversion of financial and management resources from existing operations or alternative acquisition opportunities;
•failure to realize the anticipated benefits or synergies of a transaction;
•failure to identify the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired company or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, regulatory compliance practices, litigation, accounting practices, or employee or user issues;
•risks that regulatory bodies may enact new laws or promulgate new regulations that are adverse to an acquired company or business;
•theft of our trade secrets or confidential information that we share with potential acquisition candidates;
•risk that an acquired company or investment in new offerings cannibalizes a portion of our existing business; and
•adverse market reaction to an acquisition.
If we fail to address the foregoing risks or other problems encountered in connection with past or future acquisitions of businesses, new technologies, services and other assets and strategic investments, or if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions or investments, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
An active, liquid trading market for our common stock may not be sustained, which may cause our common stock to trade at a discount from the public offering price and make it difficult for you to sell the common stock you purchase.
We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in us will sustain a trading market on the NYSE or how active and liquid that market may remain. If an active and liquid trading market is not sustained, you may have difficulty selling any of our common stock that you purchase at a price above the price you purchase it or at all. The failure of an active and liquid trading market to continue would likely have a material adverse effect on the value of our common stock. The market price of our common stock may decline below the public offering price, and you may not be able to sell your shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid or at all. An inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital to continue to fund operations by selling shares and may impair our ability to acquire other companies or technologies by using our shares as consideration.
If securities or industry analysts cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our markets, or if they adversely change their recommendations or publish negative reports regarding our business or our stock, our stock price and trading volume could materially decline.
The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our markets, or our competitors. We cannot provide any assurance that analysts will continue to cover us or provide favorable coverage. If any of the analysts who may cover us adversely change their recommendation regarding our stock, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price could materially decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of the Company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to materially decline.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.
Item 2. Properties
The Company does not own any real property. Our principal office is located at 5 Crosby Street, 3rd Floor, New York, New York 10013 where we lease approximately 43,985 square feet of office space under a lease agreement that terminates in November 2025.
The Company leases additional office space in Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and London, to support our operations in the U.S., Europe and the UK. We believe that our facilities are sufficient to meet our current needs and that suitable additional space will be available as and when needed.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
The Company is occasionally a party to routine claims or litigation incidental to its business and settled a class action litigation in October 2022, which alleged that certain of our business practices are or were improper.
See “Note 20 - Contingencies” in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The Company does not believe that it is a party to any pending legal proceeding that is likely to have a material adverse effect on its business, financial condition or results of operations.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS
The following table sets forth information regarding our executive officers and directors as of the date of this Annual Report.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Name | | Age | | Position |
Executive Officers | | | | |
Daniel Schreiber | | 51 | | Co-Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Director |
Shai Wininger | | 49 | | Co-Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer, President, Secretary and Director |
Adina Eckstein | | 38 | | Chief Operating Officer |
Tim Bixby | | 58 | | Chief Financial Officer |
John Peters | | 51 | | Chief Insurance Officer |
Jorge Espinel | | 51 | | Chief Business Development Officer |
Directors | | | | |
Michael Eisenberg (2)(3) | | 51 | | Director |
Silvija Martincevic (1)(3) | | 43 | | Director |
Irina Novoselsky (1)(2) | | 38 | | Director |
Mwashuma Nyatta (1)(2) | | 42 | | Director |
(1) Member of the Audit Committee
(2) Member of the Compensation Committee
(3) Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
The following is a brief biography of each of our executive officers and directors:
Daniel Schreiber has served as our Co-Founder, Co-Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of our board of directors since our founding in June 2015. Prior to co-founding Lemonade in 2015, Mr. Schreiber served as President and a member of the board of directors of Powermat Technologies Ltd., a wireless charging solutions and technology company, from 2011 to 2015. From 2003 to 2011, he served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at SanDisk and M-Systems (which was acquired by SanDisk in 2006), respectively. In 1997, Mr. Schreiber co-founded and acted as the Chief Executive Officer of Alchemedia Inc., an internet security software company acquired by Finjan Software in 2002. Prior to that, Mr. Schreiber practiced corporate commercial law at Herzog, Fox & Neeman, and was a member of the Israeli Bar Association. He holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honors from King’s College London. We believe Mr. Schreiber is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his perspective and experience from serving as a Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, as well as his experience leading technology companies.
Shai Wininger has served in various roles, including as our Co-Founder, Secretary, Treasurer, and Chief Technology Officer, since our founding in June 2015. Mr. Wininger has served as our Co-Chief Executive Officer since July 2021, and is a member of our board of directors. Prior to co-founding Lemonade in 2015, Mr. Wininger founded Fiverr Ltd. in 2009, and as the Chief Technology Officer, managed the engineering, design, and product departments. Prior to 2010, Mr. Wininger served in senior management capacities for companies including: from 2005 to 2010, Mobideo Aerospace, an industrial grade analytics and control platform; from 2003 to 2005, Handsmart Software, a mobile licensing platform for content driven, mobile apps; and from 1999 to 2003, Trimus Inc., a virtual reality web browser. Mr. Wininger also served as a resident faculty member of Computer Graphics at The Neri Bloomfield Academy of Design and Education from 2002 to 2007 in Haifa, Israel. We believe Mr. Wininger is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his visionary perspective, technical acumen, and experience in founding and leading technology companies.
Adina Eckstein has served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer since July 2021. Prior to becoming our Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Eckstein served as our Vice President of Operations since November 2020. Prior to joining the Company in 2019, Ms. Eckstein served as Chief Operating Officer of HSBC, where she helped one of the world’s largest financial institutions with the digitization of its business. Prior to that, from 2014 to 2016, Ms. Eckstein served as Vice President of Programme and Portfolio at BBC Worldwide, where she led the development and operations of all consumer digital technology. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in Hebrew University and a Master of Business Administration from Tel Aviv University.
Tim Bixby has served as our Chief Financial Officer since June 2017. Since February 2021, he has also served as a director and as chair of the audit committee of the board of directors of Rent the Runway, a leading
e-commerce fashion rental and resale business. Prior to joining Lemonade, Mr. Bixby served as Chief Financial Officer of Shutterstock, Inc., a digital content licensing marketplace, from 2011 to 2015. From 1999 to 2011 he served as the Chief Financial Officer, President, and a member of the board of directors of LivePerson, Inc., a provider of cloud mobile and online business messaging solutions. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Dartmouth College and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
John Peters has served as our Chief Insurance Officer since September 2016. Prior to joining Lemonade, he served as the Executive Vice President of Commercial Insurance Operations and the Chief Underwriting and Product Officer, Regional Companies Group for Liberty Mutual Insurance from 2011 to 2016. Mr. Peters also spent ten years with McKinsey & Company’s global property-casualty insurance practice, serving in various roles including partner. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and German from Bowdoin College and is a former fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.
Jorge Espinel has served as our Chief Business Development Officer since October 2018. Prior to joining Lemonade, from 2013 to 2018, he served as the Vice President of Global Business Development at Spotify. Mr. Espinel also spent 2009 to 2013 at News Corporation’s Digital Media Group, now 21st Century Fox, serving as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development. From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Espinel served as an investment partner with Fuse Capital, formerly Velocity Interactive Group. In addition, Mr. Espinel served as the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Mergers and Acquisitions at America Online from 2002 to 2007. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, magna cum laude, from University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences.
Michael Eisenberg has served as a member of our board of directors since July 2015. Mr. Eisenberg is a Partner at Aleph, an early stage venture capital fund that invests in Israeli entrepreneurs, which he joined in July 2013. In addition to his role on our board of directors, Mr. Eisenberg serves as a member of the board of several private companies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yeshiva University. We believe Mr. Eisenberg is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his technology investment experience and his service as a director at numerous companies.
Silvija Martincevic has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Since February 2023, Ms. Martincevic has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Deputy Corporation, a global leader in smart scheduling and workforce management for shift workers and businesses. From April 2019 until July 2022, Ms. Martincevic was the Chief Commercial Officer for Affirm, Inc., a consumer lending company, and was responsible for commercial, partnership, and marketing strategy. She continued to serve as a consultant of Affirm through December 2022. Prior to Affirm, from 2011 until 2018, Ms. Martincevic served a variety of roles including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer of Groupon’s international business across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Ms. Martincevic also spent 10 years in the investment management industry managing investments and portfolio risk for large institutions. In 2003, she co-founded Zenna Financial Services, an index equity asset manager, and served as its Chief Executive Officer until the company was acquired in 2007, and later held other senior leadership roles in the investment and hedge fund industry investing in women and minority-owned funds. Ms. Martincevic earned her B.A. in Economics at Beloit College and M.B.A. in Econometrics and Statistics from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. We believe Ms. Martincevic is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her strategic and operational background in financial technology and her experience in growing and scaling a variety of consumer technology companies.
Irina Novoselsky has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Since January 2023, Ms. Novoselsky has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Hootsuite, a social media management platform company. Prior to Hootsuite, from 2017 to 2021, Ms. Novoselsky was the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of CareerBuilder, a global media and SaaS business in the HR tech space, where she positioned the company for accelerated growth as the industry leading talent acquisition platform. She is currently serving as an advisor to the board of CareerBuilder. Previously, Ms. Novoselsky served as the President of Novitex Enterprise Solutions from 2014 to 2017, a technology outsourcing business, where she also served as interim CFO in 2014. Prior to Novitex, Ms. Novoselsky was an investment professional at Apollo Global Management in the Private Equity Group and an investment banker in the M&A Group at Morgan Stanley. She graduated magna cum laude from the Stern School of Business at New York University. We believe Ms. Novoselsky is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her business to business and business to consumer experience driving growth and operational efficiency for large, global, complex organizations and financial acumen.
Mwashuma (Shu) Nyatta has served as a member of our board of directors since November 2018. Mr. Nyatta is also an independent board member for a number of private companies. In May 2022, Mr. Nyatta founded Bicycle Capital, a growth equity investment firm, and serves as its founder and managing partner. Prior to Bicycle, he was a Managing Partner at SoftBank, which he joined in 2015. At SoftBank, he invested in and sat on the boards of multiple high-growth companies across varied industries and geographies. Prior to SoftBank, Mr. Nyatta served as a Vice President at J.P. Morgan from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Nyatta has passed the Series 63 Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam and the Series 79 Investment Banking Representative Exam, both administered by FINRA. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard College, as well as a Master of Science in Anthropology with Distinction from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. We believe Mr. Nyatta is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his experience in the finance field and his service as a director at numerous companies.
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
The Company’s common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol “LMND”.
Holders
As of March 2, 2023, there were approximately 172 holders of record of the Company’s common stock.
Dividends
We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings and do not expect to pay any dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare cash dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws, and will depend on a number of factors, including our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, contractual restrictions, general business conditions, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.
Performance Graph
The following performance graph compares the cumulative total shareholder return of an investment in our common shares since July 2, 2020 (first day of trading) through December 31, 2022 to the cumulative total return of Nasdaq Composite Stock Index (“Nasdaq Index’) and the Nasdaq Insurance Index (“Nasdaq Insurance Index”). The graph assumes that $100 was invested on July 2, 2020 and the reinvestment of dividends, if any. The share price performance presented below is not necessarily indicative of future results.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| July 2, 2020 | December 31, 2020 | December 31, 2021 | December 31, 2022 |
Lemonade, Inc. | $100.00 | $422.41 | $145.21 | $47.17 |
Nasdaq Composite Index | $100.00 | $123.78 | $153.27 | $102.54 |
Nasdaq Insurance Index | $100.00 | $123.27 | $140.90 | $143.68 |
The foregoing performance graph and data shall not be deemed “filed” as part of this Form 10-K for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section and should not be deemed incorporated by reference into any other filing of the Company under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, except to the extent the Company specifically incorporates it by reference into such filing.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
Except as previously disclosed during the third quarter of 2022, there have been no recent sales of unregistered securities.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
None.
Use of Proceeds
On July 1, 2020, the SEC declared effective our registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-239007), as amended, filed in connection with our initial public offering (the “Registration Statement”).
The net proceeds of approximately $335.6 million from our initial public offering have been invested in investment grade, interest-bearing instruments. There has been no material change in the expected use of the net proceeds from our initial public offering as described in our final prospectus, dated July 1, 2020, filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 424(b) relating to our Registration Statement.
Item 6. [Reserved]
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, the accompanying notes and other information included elsewhere in this Annual Report. This discussion and analysis below includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the “Risk Factors” section that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Additionally, our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any period in the future. A discussion of the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 has been reported previously under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the SEC on March 1, 2022 (the “2021 Annual Report’”).
In this Annual Report, unless we indicate otherwise or the context requires, "Lemonade, Inc.," "Lemonade," "the Company," "we," "our," "ours" and "us" refer to Lemonade, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, including Lemonade Insurance Company, Lemonade Insurance Agency, LLC, and Metromile, Inc.
Overview
Lemonade is rebuilding insurance from the ground up on a digital substrate and an innovative business model. By leveraging technology, data, artificial intelligence, contemporary design, and social impact, we believe we are making insurance more delightful, more affordable, and more precise. To that end, we have built a vertically-integrated company with wholly-owned insurance carriers in the United States and Europe, and the full technology stack to power them.
A brief chat with our bot, AI Maya, is all it takes to get covered with renters, homeowners, pet, car or life insurance, and we expect to offer a similar experience for other insurance products over time. Claims are filed by chatting with another bot, AI Jim, who pays claims in as little as three seconds. This breezy experience belies the extraordinary technology that enables it: a state-of-the-art platform that spans marketing to underwriting, customer care to claims processing, finance to regulation. Our architecture melds artificial intelligence with the human kind, and learns from the prodigious data it generates to become ever better at delighting customers and evaluating risk.
In addition to digitizing insurance end-to-end, we also reimagined the underlying business model to minimize volatility while maximizing trust and social impact. To lessen the volatility inherent in an industry directly impacted by the weather, we utilize several forms of reinsurance, with the goal of dampening the impact on our gross margin. The result is that excess claims are generally offloaded to reinsurers, while excess premiums can be donated to nonprofits selected by our customers as part of our annual "Giveback". These two ballasts, reinsurance and Giveback, reduce volatility, while creating an aligned, trustful, and values-rich relationship with our customers. See “Business - Our Business Model” and “Business - Our Product Offerings - Giveback Feature.”
Acquisition of Metromile
On July 28, 2022 (the “Acquisition Date”), the Company completed the acquisition of Metromile, Inc. (“Metromile"), a leading digital insurance platform in the United States that offers real-time, personalized car insurance policies by the mile. The Company acquired 100% of Metromile's equity through an all-stock transaction based upon the exchange ratio of 0.05263 shares of Lemonade for each outstanding share of Metromile (the “Metromile Acquisition”). As a result of the Metromile Acquisition, Metromile stockholders received 6,901,934 shares of Lemonade's common stock, with minimal cash paid in lieu of fractional shares. In addition, the Company assumed all outstanding and unexercised options, and outstanding restricted stock units as of the Acquisition Date, which were converted into corresponding awards with substantially identical terms and conditions prior to the Acquisition Date, at the same exchange ratio of 0.05263. Our results of operations include those of Metromile from the Acquisition Date through December 31, 2022.
Key Factors and Trends Affecting our Operating Results
Our financial condition and results of operations have been, and will continue to be, affected by a number of factors, including the following:
Seasonality
Seasonal patterns can impact both our rate of customer acquisition and the incurrence of claims and losses.
Based on historical experience, existing and potential customers move more frequently in the third quarter, compared to the rest of the calendar year. As a result, we may see greater demand for new or expanded insurance coverage, and increased online engagement resulting in proportionately more growth during the third quarter. We expect that as we grow our customers, expand geographically and launch new products, the impact of seasonal variability on our rate of growth may decrease.
Additionally, seasonal weather patterns impact the level and amount of claims we receive. These patterns include hurricanes, wildfires, and coastal storms in the fall, cold weather patterns and changing home heating needs in the winter, and tornados and hailstorms in the spring and summer. The mix of geographic exposure and products within our customer base impacts our exposure to these weather patterns.
Current Macroeconomic Environment
The global pandemic resulting from the coronavirus, including variants (“COVID-19”) has severely impacted the global economy and caused a significant slowdown in economic activity. While the global economy began to reopen in 2021, there remains to be an uncertainty about the duration and macroeconomic impact of COVID-19. Although the Company did not see a material impact on its results of operations, management continues to monitor and cannot definitively determine the ultimate financial impact of COVID-19, and the related economic conditions.
Our investment portfolio consists of high-quality securities, and we do not expect a material adverse impact in the value of our investment portfolio, or long-term negative impact on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows as it relates to COVID-19.
General economic inflation has increased and there is a risk of inflation remaining elevated for an extended period. We anticipate the effects of inflation impacting our investment portfolio, pricing of our products and in estimating reserves for unpaid claims and claim expenses. The actual effects of the current and potential future increase in inflation on our results remains to be unknown and cannot be estimated with precision.
See "Risk Factors — Risks Relating to our Industry — Severe weather events and other catastrophes, including the effects of climate change and global pandemics, are inherently unpredictable and may have a material adverse effect on our financial results and financial condition."
Reinsurance
We obtain reinsurance to help manage our exposure to property and casualty insurance risks. Although our reinsurance counterparties are liable to us according to the terms of the reinsurance policies, we remain primarily liable to our policyholders as the direct insurers on all risks reinsured, see "Risk Factors - Risks Relating to Our Business” and “Risks Relating to Our Industry.” As a result, reinsurance does not eliminate the obligation of our insurance subsidiaries to pay all claims, and we are subject to the risk that one or more of our reinsurers will be unable or unwilling to honor its obligations, that the reinsurers will not pay in a timely fashion, or that our losses are so large that they exceed the limits inherent in our reinsurance contracts, each of which could have a material effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Furthermore, reinsurance may be unavailable at current levels and prices, which may limit our ability to write new business.
Through June 30, 2021, we had proportional reinsurance contracts which cover all of our products and geographies, we transferred, or “ceded,” 75% of our premium to our reinsurers (“Proportional Reinsurance Contracts”). In exchange, these reinsurers paid us a ceding commission of 25% for every dollar ceded, in addition to funding all of the corresponding claims, or 75% of all our claims. The Company opted to manage the remaining 25% of the business with alternative forms of reinsurance through non-proportional reinsurance contracts (“Non-Proportional Reinsurance Contracts”).
A portion of the Company’s proportional reinsurance program expired on June 30, 2021 and June 30, 2022. As the business continued to grow and diversify, and with stability in our insurance results, we decreased the overall share of proportional reinsurance from 75% of premium to 55% effective July 1, 2022. In addition, we purchased a new reinsurance program to protect us against natural catastrophe risk in the U.S. that exceeds $80 million in losses effective July 1, 2022. Other non-proportional reinsurance contracts were renewed with terms similar to the expired contracts.
Metromile entered into a Quota Share reinsurance agreement effective January 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company cedes 30% of premiums and losses to reinsurers.
Components of our Results of Operations
Revenue
Gross Written Premium
Gross written premium is the amount received, or to be received, for insurance policies written by us during a specific period of time without reduction for premiums ceded to reinsurance. Gross written premium includes direct and assumed premium. In December 2022, we began assuming premium related to car insurance policies written in Texas, in connection with our fronting arrangement with a third party carrier in Texas. Following the Metromile Acquisition, we also include direct written premium from the sale of pay-per-mile car insurance policies within the United States. The volume of our gross written premium in any given period is generally influenced by new business submissions, binding of new business submissions into policies, renewals of existing policies, and average size and premium rate of bound policies.
Ceded Written Premium
Ceded written premium is the amount of gross written premium ceded to reinsurers. We enter into reinsurance contracts to limit our exposure to potential losses as well as to provide additional capacity for growth. Ceded written premium is earned over the reinsurance contract period in proportion to the period of risk covered. The volume of our ceded written premium is impacted by the level of our gross written premium and any decision we make to increase or decrease in reinsurance limits, retention levels and co-participation. Our ceded written premium can also be impacted significantly in certain periods due to changes in reinsurance agreements. In periods where we start or stop ceding a large volume of our premium, ceded written premium may increase or decrease significantly compared to prior periods and these fluctuations may not be indicative of future trends.
Gross Earned Premium
Gross earned premium represents the earned portion of our gross written premium. Gross earned premium includes direct and assumed premium. Our insurance policies generally have a term of one year and premium is earned pro rata over the term of the policy. In addition, following the Metromile Acquisition, we also include earned premiums from the pay-per-mile car insurance policies which are written for six-month terms. Premium for the policy provides a base rate per month for the entire policy term upon binding of the policy plus a per-mile rate multiplied by the miles driven each day (based on data from the telematics device, subject to a daily maximum).
Ceded Earned Premium
Ceded earned premium is the amount of gross earned premium ceded to reinsurers.
Net Earned Premium
Net earned premium represents the earned portion of our gross written premium, less the earned portion that is ceded to third-party reinsurers under our reinsurance agreements. Premium is earned pro rata over the term of the policy, which is generally one year. Net earned premium from the pay-per-mile car insurance policies are earned over the term of the policy which is written for six-month terms.
Ceding Commission Income
Ceding commission income is commission we receive based on the premium ceded to third-party reinsurers to reimburse us for acquisition and underwriting expenses. We earn commissions on reinsurance premium ceded in a manner consistent with the recognition of the earned premium on the underlying insurance policies, on a pro-rata basis over the terms of the policies reinsured. The portion of ceding commission income which represents reimbursement of successful acquisition costs related to the underlying policies is recorded as an offset to other insurance expense.
Net Investment Income
Net investment income represents interest earned from fixed maturity securities, short term securities and other investments, and the gains or losses from the sale of investments, net of investment fees paid to the Company’s investment manager. Our cash and invested assets are primarily comprised of fixed-maturity securities, and may also include cash and cash equivalents, equity securities, and short-term investments. The principal factors that influence net investment income are the size of our investment portfolio and the yield on that portfolio. As measured by amortized cost (which excludes changes in fair value, such as changes in interest rates), the size of our investment portfolio is mainly a function of our invested equity capital along with premium we receive from our customers less payments on customer claims. Over time, we expect that net investment income will represent a more meaningful component of our results of operations.
Commission and Other Income
Commission income consists of commissions earned for policies placed with third-party insurance companies where we have no exposure to the insured risk. Such commission is recognized on the effective date of the associated policy which is when the performance obligation is completed. Other income primarily consists of fees collected from policyholders relating to installment premiums. These fees are recognized at the time each policy installment is billed.
Expense
Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense, Net
Loss and loss adjustment expense (“LAE”), net represent the costs incurred for losses net of amounts ceded to reinsurers. We enter into reinsurance contracts to limit our exposure to potential losses as well as to provide additional capacity for growth. These expenses are a function of the size and term of the insurance policies we write and the loss experience associated with the underlying risks. Loss and LAE are based on an actuarial analysis of the estimated losses, including losses incurred during the period and changes in estimates from prior periods. Loss and LAE may be paid out over a period of years. Certain policies we write are subject to catastrophe losses. Catastrophe losses are losses resulting from events involving claims and policyholders, including earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, storms, terrorist acts or other aggregating events that are designated by internationally recognized organizations, such as Property Claims Services, that track and report on insured losses resulting from catastrophic events.
Other Insurance Expense
Other insurance expense consists primarily of amortization of commissions costs and premium taxes incurred on the successful acquisition of business written on a direct basis, and credit card processing fees not charged to our customers. Other insurance expense also includes employee compensation, including stock-based compensation and benefits, of our underwriting teams as well as allocated occupancy costs and related overhead based on headcount. Other insurance expense is offset by the portion of ceding commission income which represents reimbursement of successful acquisition costs related to the underlying policies.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing includes third-party marketing, advertising, branding, public relations and sales expenses. Sales and marketing also includes associated employee compensation, including stock-based compensation and benefits, as well as allocated occupancy costs and related overhead based on headcount. Sales and marketing costs are expensed as incurred.
We plan to continue to invest in sales and marketing to attract and acquire new customers and increase our brand awareness. We expect that sales and marketing costs will increase in absolute dollars in future periods and vary from period-to-period as a percentage of revenue in the near-term. We expect that, in the long-term, our sales and marketing costs will decrease as a percentage of revenue as we continue to drive customer acquisition efficiencies and as the proportion of renewals to our total business increases.
Technology Development
Technology development consists of employee compensation, including stock-based compensation and benefits, and expenses related to vendors engaged in product management, design, development and testing of our websites and products. Technology development also includes allocated occupancy costs and related overhead based on headcount. We expense technology development costs as incurred, except for costs that are capitalized related to internal-use software development projects and subsequently depreciated over the expected useful life of the developed software.
We expect product technology development costs, a portion of which will be capitalized, to continue to grow in the foreseeable future as we identify opportunities to invest in the development of new products and internal tools and enhancement of our existing products and technologies that we believe will drive the long-term profitability of the business.
General and Administrative
General and administrative includes employee compensation, including stock-based compensation and benefits for executive, finance, accounting, legal, business operations, and other administrative personnel. In addition, general and administrative includes outside professional services, non-income based taxes, insurance, charitable donations, and allocated occupancy costs and related overhead based on headcount. Depreciation and amortization expense is recorded as a component of general and administrative.
We expect to incur incremental general and administrative costs to support our global operational growth and enhancements to support our reporting and planning functions.
We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant additional general and administrative expense as a result of operating as a public company, including expenses related to compliance with the rules and regulations of the SEC and the listing standards of the NYSE, additional corporate, director and officer insurance expenses, greater investor relations expenses and increased legal, audit and consulting fees. We also expect to increase the size of our general and administrative function to support our increased compliance requirements and the growth of our business. As a result, we expect that our general and administrative expense will increase in absolute dollars in future periods and vary from period-to-period as a percentage of revenue.
Income Tax Expense
Our provision for income taxes consists primarily of foreign income taxes related to income generated by our subsidiaries organized under the laws of the Netherlands and Israel. As we expand the scale of our international business activities, any changes in the U.S. and foreign taxation of such activities may increase our overall provision for income taxes in the future.
We have a valuation allowance for our U.S. deferred tax assets, including federal and state net operating losses. We expect to maintain this valuation allowance until it becomes more likely than not that the benefit of our federal and state deferred tax assets will be realized through expected future taxable income in the United States.
Key Operating and Financial Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including the following key operating and financial metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends in our business, prepare financial projections and make strategic decisions. We believe these non-GAAP and operational measures are useful in evaluating our performance, in addition to our financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. See "— Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for additional information on non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures.
The following table sets forth these metrics as of and for the periods presented:
| | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended December 31, |
| 2022 | 2021 |
| ($ in millions, except Premium per customer) |
Customers (end of period) | 1,807,548 | 1,427,481 |
In force premium (end of period) | $ | 625.1 | | $ | 380.1 | |
Premium per customer (end of period) | $ | 346 | | $ | 266 | |
Annual dollar retention (end of period) | 86 | % | 82 | % |
Total revenue | $ | 256.7 | | $ | 128.4 | |
Gross earned premium | $ | 490.5 | | $ | 292.0 | |
Gross profit | $ | 42.3 | | $ | 31.2 | |
Adjusted gross profit | $ | 64.9 | | $ | 45.6 | |
Net loss | $ | (297.8) | | $ | (241.3) | |
Adjusted EBITDA | $ | (225.1) | | $ | (184.2) | |
Gross profit margin | 16 | % | 24 | % |
Adjusted gross profit margin | 25 | % | 36 | % |
Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium | 13 | % | 16 | % |
Gross loss ratio | 90 | % | 90 | % |
Net loss ratio | 97 | % | 93 | % |
Customers
We define customers as the number of current policyholders underwritten by us or placed by us with third-party insurance partners (who pay us recurring commissions) as of the period end date. A customer that has more than one policy counts as a single customer for the purposes of this metric. We view customers as an important metric to assess our financial performance because customer growth drives our revenue, expands brand awareness, deepens our market penetration, creates additional upsell and cross-sell opportunities and generates additional data to continue to improve the functioning of our platform.
In Force Premium
We define in force premium ("IFP") as the aggregate annualized premium for customers as of the period end date. At each period end date, we calculate IFP as the sum of:
i)In force written premium — the annualized premium of in force policies underwritten by us; and
ii)In force placed premium — the annualized premium of in force policies placed with third party insurance companies for which we earn a recurring commission payment. In force placed premium currently reflects less than 2% of IFP.
The annualized value of premiums is a legal and contractual determination made by assessing the contractual terms with our customers. The annualized value of contracts is not determined by reference to historical revenues, deferred revenues, or any other GAAP financial measure over any period. IFP is not a forecast of future revenues nor is it a reliable indicator of revenue expected to be earned in any given period. We believe that our calculation of IFP is useful to analysts and investors because it captures the impact of growth in customers and premium per customer at the end of each reported period, without adjusting for known or projected policy updates, cancellations, rescissions and non-renewals. We use IFP because we believe it gives our management useful insight into the total reach of our platform by showing all in force policies underwritten and placed by us. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate IFP differently or not at all, which reduces the usefulness of IFP as a tool for comparison.
Premium per customer
We define premium per customer as the average annualized premium customers pay for products underwritten by us or placed by us with third-party insurance partners. We calculate premium per customer by dividing IFP by customers. We view premium per customer as an important metric to assess our financial performance because premium per customer reflects the average amount of money our customers spend on our products, which helps drive strategic initiatives.
Annual Dollar Retention
We define Annual Dollar Retention ("ADR"), as the percentage of IFP retained over a twelve month period, inclusive of changes in policy value, changes in number of policies, changes in policy type, and churn. To calculate ADR we first aggregate the IFP from all active customers at the beginning of the period and then aggregate the IFP from those same customers at the end of the period. ADR is then equal to the ratio of ending IFP to beginning IFP. We believe that our calculation of ADR is useful to analysts and investors because it captures our ability to retain customers and sell additional products and coverage to them over time. We view ADR as an important metric to measure our ability to provide a delightful end-to-end customer experience, satisfy our customers’ evolving insurance needs and maintain our customers’ trust in our products. Our customers become more valuable to us every year they continue to subscribe to our products. Other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate ADR differently or not at all, which reduces the usefulness of ADR as a tool for comparison.
Gross Earned Premium
Gross earned premium is the earned portion of our gross written premium. Gross earned premium includes direct and assumed premium. In December 2022, we began assuming premium related to car insurance policies written in Texas, in connection with our fronting arrangement with a third party carrier in Texas, and this does not impact the key performance indicators for any prior periods.
We use this operating metric as we believe it gives our management and other users of our financial information useful insight into the gross economic benefit generated by our business operations and allows us to evaluate our underwriting performance without regard to changes in our underlying reinsurance structure. See ‘‘— Components of Our Results of Operations — Revenue — Gross Earned Premium.’’
Unlike net earned premium, gross earned premium excludes the impact of premiums ceded to reinsurers, and therefore should not be used as a substitute for net earned premium, total revenue, or any other measure presented in accordance with GAAP.
Gross Profit
Gross profit is calculated in accordance with GAAP as total revenue less loss and loss adjustment expense, net, other insurance expense, and depreciation and amortization (allocated to cost of revenue).
Adjusted Gross Profit
We define adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP financial measure, as:
•Gross profit, excluding net investment income, and interest income and expense, plus
•Employee-related costs, plus
•Professional fees and other, plus
•Depreciation and amortization (allocated to cost of revenue)
See "— Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for a reconciliation of total revenue to adjusted gross profit.
Adjusted EBITDA
We define adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, as net loss excluding the impact of interest income and expense, income tax expense, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation, net investment income, change in fair value of warrants liability, and other non-cash adjustments and other transactions that we consider to be unique in nature. See “- Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for a reconciliation of net loss to adjusted EBITDA in accordance with GAAP.
Gross Profit Margin
We define gross profit margin, expressed as percentage, as the ratio of gross profit to total revenue.
Adjusted Gross Profit Margin
We define adjusted gross profit margin, a non-GAAP financial measure, expressed as a percentage, as the ratio of adjusted gross profit to total revenue. See "— Non-GAAP Financial Measures."
Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium
We define Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium, a non-GAAP financial measure, expressed as a percentage, as the ratio of adjusted gross profit to gross earned premium. Our Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium provides management with useful insight into our operating performance. See ‘‘— Non-GAAP Financial Measures.’’
Gross Loss Ratio
We define gross loss ratio, expressed as a percentage, as the ratio of losses and loss adjustment expense to gross earned premium.
Net Loss Ratio
We define net loss ratio, expressed as a percentage, as the ratio of losses and loss adjustment expense, less amounts ceded to reinsurers, to net earned premium.
Results of Operations
The following table presents our results of operations for the periods indicated:
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, | | | | |
| 2022 | | 2021 | | Change | | % Change |
| ($ in millions) | | |
Revenue | | | | | | | |
Net earned premium | $ | 172.4 | | | $ | 77.0 | | | $ | 95.4 | | | 124 | % |
Ceding commission income | 64.1 | | | 44.9 | | | 19.2 | | | 43 | % |
Net investment income | 8.4 | | | 1.9 | | | 6.5 | | | 342 | % |
Commission and other income | 11.8 | | | 4.6 | | | 7.2 | | | 157 | % |
Total revenue | 256.7 | | | 128.4 | | | 128.3 | | | 100 | % |
Expense | | | | | | | |
Loss and loss adjustment expense, net | 167.3 | | | 71.9 | | | 95.4 | | | 133 | % |
Other insurance expense | 44.0 | | | 24.1 | | | 19.9 | | | 83 | % |
Sales and marketing | 138.3 | | | 141.6 | | | (3.3) | | | (2) | % |
Technology development | 79.6 | | | 51.8 | | | 27.8 | | | 54 | % |
General and administrative | 122.3 | | | 72.6 | | | 49.7 | | | 68 | % |
Total expense | 551.5 | | | 362.0 | | | 189.5 | | | 52 | % |
Loss before income taxes | (294.8) | | | (233.6) | | | (61.2) | | | 26 | % |
Income tax expense | 3.0 | | | 7.7 | | | (4.7) | | | (61) | % |
Net loss | $ | (297.8) | | | $ | (241.3) | | | $ | (56.5) | | | 23 | % |
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021
Net Earned Premium
Net earned premium increased by $95.4 million, or 124%, to $172.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to the earning of increased gross written premium, and increased retention of ceded written premium under our Proportional Reinsurance Contracts as discussed in detail above under “Reinsurance.”
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, | | | | |
| 2022 | | 2021 | | Change | | % Change |
| ($ in millions) | | |
Gross written premium | $ | 555.7 | | | $ | 375.7 | | | $ | 180.0 | | | 48 | % |
Ceded written premium | (333.1) | | | (273.4) | | | (59.7) | | | 22 | % |
Net written premium | $ | 222.6 | | | $ | 102.3 | | | $ | 120.3 | | | 118 | % |
Gross written premium increased $180.0 million, or 48%, to $555.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase was primarily due to a 27% increase in net added customers year over year driven by the success of our digital advertising campaigns. We also continued to expand our geographic footprint and product offerings. In addition, we saw a 30% increase in premiums per customer year over year due to an increasing prevalence of multiple policies per customer, growth in the overall average policy value, and continued shift in the mix of underlying products toward higher value policies.
Ceded written premium increased $59.7 million, or 22%, to $333.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, primarily due to the impact of the change in reinsurance arrangements. The Company renewed a portion of the reinsurance contracts that expired on June 30, 2021 and June 30, 2022, which decreased the overall share of proportional reinsurance from 75% of premium to 55% effective July 1, 2022. The Company also purchased a new reinsurance program to protect against natural catastrophe risk in the U.S. Other non-proportional reinsurance contracts were renewed with terms similar to expired contracts.
Net written premium increased $120.3 million, or 118%, to $222.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase was primarily due to the $180.0 million, or 48% increase in gross written premium offset by the increase in ceded written premium of $59.7 million, or 22% for the year ended December 31, 2022, as compared to year ended December 31, 2021.
The table below shows the amount of premium we earned on a gross and net basis. Ceded earned premium as a percentage of gross earned premium decreased to 65% for the year ended December 31, 2022, as compared to 74% for the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to the change in total participation in proportional reinsurance contracts, as discussed above.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Years Ended December 31, | | | | |
| 2022 | | 2021 | | Change | | % Change |
| ($ in millions) | | |
Gross earned premium | $ | 490.5 | | | $ | 292.0 | | | $ | 198.5 | | | 68 | % |
Ceded earned premium | (318.1) | | | (215.0) | | | (103.1) | | | 48 | % |
Net earned premium | $ | 172.4 | | | $ | 77.0 | | | $ | 95.4 | | | 124 | % |
Ceding Commission Income
Ceding commission income increased $19.2 million, or 43% to $64.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, consistent with the increase in ceded earned premium related to the proportional reinsurance contracts with third-party reinsurance companies during the year.
Net Investment Income
Net investment income increased $6.5 million, or 342%, to $8.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase was primarily driven by the diversification of the Company’s investment portfolio with higher returns in comparison to prior year, offset by investment expenses of $0.4 million. We mainly invest in cash, money market funds, U.S. Treasury bills, corporate debt securities, asset-backed securities, notes and other obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government.
Commission and Other Income
Commission and other income increased $7.2 million, or 157% to $11.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to year ended December 31, 2021, due to growth in premiums placed with third-party insurance companies during the period and an increase in installment fees billed.
Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense, Net
Loss and LAE, net increased $95.4 million, or 133%, to $167.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase was primarily in line with growth in premium, increase in net retained losses due to change in proportional reinsurance contract and increased claims costs due to impact of inflation. During the second half of 2022, net incurred losses of $0.4 million was recorded due to Hurricane Ian and $7.6 million due to winter storm Elliott. These increases were offset by favorable prior period development.
Other Insurance Expense
Other insurance expense increased $19.9 million, or 83%, to $44.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. Professional fees, and other increased by $6.8 million, or 115% primarily in support of growth and expansion initiatives during the year ended December 31, 2022. Employee-related expense, including stock based compensation, increased by $6.6 million, or 71%, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, driven by an increase in underwriting staff to support our continued growth. Credit card processing fees increased $3.2 million, or 48%, as a result of the increase in customers and associated premium. Amortization of deferred acquisition costs, net of ceded commissions also increased by $3.2 million, or 133% as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses decreased $3.3 million, or 2%, to $138.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. Expense related to brand and performance advertising decreased by $16.1 million, or 15%, as a result of reduced spending on search advertising and other customer acquisition channels. Employee-related expense, including stock based compensation, increased $8.2 million, or 29%, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, driven by an increase in sales and marketing headcount to support our continued growth and expansion into new markets. Software expense also increased by $3.4 million, or 243%.
Technology Development
Technology development expenses increased $27.8 million, or 54%, to $79.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. Employee-related expense, including stock based compensation, net of capitalized costs for the development of internal-use software, increased $19.3 million, or 43%, as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, driven by an increase in payroll expense for product, engineering, design and quality assurance personnel to support our continued growth and product development initiatives, including automation, improvement in machine learning, new products, and geographic expansion. Technology tools and software expense increased by $5.6 million, or 147%.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses increased $49.7 million, or 68%, to $122.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021. Employee related expense, including stock-based compensation, increased by $17.1 million, or 49%, as we increased finance, legal, business operations and administrative personnel. Depreciation and amortization increased by $8.5 million or 230%. Non-recurring transaction and integration costs of $8.4 million primarily relating to legal and other professional fees and employee retention and severance costs were incurred relating to the Metromile Acquisition. Legal and Professional fees increased $6.1 million, or 102%. Software costs increased by $3.2 million, or 110%. Bad debt expense increased by $2.5 million, or 40%.
Income tax
Income tax expense decreased $4.7 million, or 61%, to $3.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 due to decreased tax liability related to income generated by our subsidiary in Israel, and uncertain tax positions.
Net loss
Net loss increased $56.5 million, or 23%, to $297.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the year ended December 31, 2021 due to the factors described above.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The non-GAAP financial measures below have not been calculated in accordance with GAAP and should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, GAAP results. In addition, adjusted gross profit and adjusted gross profit margin, ratio of adjusted gross profit to gross earned premium, and adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as indicators of our operating performance, liquidity or cash flows generated by operating, investing and financing activities, as there may be significant factors or trends that they fail to address. We caution investors that non-GAAP financial information, by its nature, departs from traditional accounting conventions. Therefore, its use can make it difficult to compare our current results with our results from other reporting periods and with the results of other companies.
Our management uses these non-GAAP financial measures, in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, as an integral part of managing our business and to, among other things: (i) monitor and evaluate the performance of our business operations and financial performance; (ii) facilitate internal comparisons of the historical operating performance of our business operations; (iii) facilitate external comparisons of the results of our overall business to the historical operating performance of other companies that may have different capital structures and debt levels; (iv) review and assess the operating performance of our management team; (v) analyze and evaluate financial and strategic planning decisions regarding future operating investments; and (vi) plan for and prepare future annual operating budgets and determine appropriate levels of operating investments.
Adjusted Gross Profit and Adjusted Gross Profit Margin
We define adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP financial measure, as gross profit excluding net investment income, and interest income and expense, plus fixed costs and overhead associated with our underwriting operations including employee-related expense and professional fees and other, and depreciation and amortization allocated to cost of revenue. After these adjustments, the resulting calculation is inclusive of only those variable costs of revenue incurred on the successful acquisition of business and without the volatility of investment income. We use adjusted gross profit as a key measure of our progress towards profitability and to consistently evaluate the variable contribution to our business from underwriting operations from period to period.
We define adjusted gross profit margin, a non-GAAP financial measure, expressed as a percentage, as the ratio of adjusted gross profit to total revenue.
The following table provides a reconciliation of total revenue to adjusted gross profit and the related adjusted gross profit margin for the periods presented:
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended December 31, |
| 2022 | | 2021 |
| ($ in millions) |
Total revenue | $ | 256.7 | | | $ | 128.4 | |
Adjustments: | | | |
Loss and loss adjustment expense, net | $ | (167.3) | | | $ | (71.9) | |
Other insurance expense | (44.0) | | | (24.1) | |
Depreciation and amortization | (3.1) | | | (1.2) | |
Gross profit | $ | 42.3 | | | $ | 31.2 | |
Gross profit margin (% of total revenue) | 16 | % | | 24 | % |
Adjustments: | | | |
Net investment income | $ | (8.4) | | | $ | (1.9) | |
Interest income | (0.7) | | | — | |
Employee-related costs | 15.9 | | | 9.2 | |
Professional fees and other | 12.7 | | | 5.9 | |
Depreciation and amortization | 3.1 | | | 1.2 | |
Adjusted gross profit | $ | 64.9 | | | $ | 45.6 | |
Adjusted gross profit margin (% of total revenue) | 25 | % | | 36 | % |
Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium
The Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium measures the relationship between the underlying business volume and gross economic benefit generated by our underwriting operations, on the one hand, and our underlying profitability trends, on the other. We rely on this measure, which supplements our gross profit ratio as calculated in accordance with GAAP, because it provides management with insight into our underlying profitability trends over time.
We use gross earned premium as the denominator in calculating this ratio, which excludes the impact of premiums ceded to reinsurers, because we believe that it reflects the business volume and the gross economic benefit generated by our underlying underwriting operations, which in turn are the key drivers of our future profit opportunities. We exclude the impact of ceded premiums from the denominator because ceded premiums can change rapidly and significantly based on the type and mix of reinsurance structures we use and, therefore, add volatility that is not indicative of our underlying profitability. For example, a shift to a proportional reinsurance arrangement would result in an increase in ceded premium, with offsetting benefits to gross profit from ceded losses and ceding commissions earned, resulting in a nominal overall economic impact. This shift would result in a steep decline in total revenue with a corresponding spike in gross margin, whereas we expect that the Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium would remain relatively unchanged. We expect our reinsurance structure to evolve along with our costs and capital requirements, and we believe that our reinsurance structure at a given time does not reflect the performance of our underlying underwriting operations, which we expect to be the key driver of our costs of reinsurance over time.
On the other hand, the numerator, which is adjusted gross profit, includes the net impact of all reinsurance, including ceded premiums and the benefits of ceded losses and ceding commissions earned. Because our reinsurance structure is a key component of our risk management and a key driver of our profitability or loss in a given period, we believe this is meaningful.
Therefore, by providing this Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium for a given period, we are able to assess the relationship between business volume and profitability, while eliminating the volatility from the cost of our then-current reinsurance structure, which is driven primarily by the performance of our insurance underwriting platform rather than our business volume.
The following table sets forth our calculation of the Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium for the periods presented: | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended December 31, |
| 2022 | | 2021 |
| ($ in millions) |
Numerator: Adjusted gross profit | $ | 64.9 | | | $ | 45.6 | |
Denominator: Gross earned premium | $ | 490.5 | | | $ | 292.0 | |
Ratio of Adjusted Gross Profit to Gross Earned Premium | 13 | % | | 16 | % |
Adjusted EBITDA
We define adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, as net loss excluding interest Income and expense, income tax expense, depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation, net investment income, change in fair value of warrants liability, other non-cash adjustments and other transactions that we would consider to be unique in nature. We exclude these items from adjusted EBITDA because we do not consider them to be directly attributable to our underlying operating performance. We use adjusted EBITDA as an internal performance measure in the management of our operations because we believe it gives our management and other customers of our financial information useful insight into our results of operations and our underlying business performance. Adjusted EBITDA should not be viewed as substitute for net loss calculated in accordance with GAAP, and other companies may define adjusted EBITDA differently.
The following table provides a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net loss for the periods presented.
| | | | | | | | | | | |
| Year Ended December 31, |
| 2022 | | 2021 |
| ($ in millions) |
Net loss | $ | (297.8) | | | $ | (241.3) | |
Adjustments: | | | |
|