Powered by General Catalyst, Lemonade’s
Synthetic Agents program seeks to close the cash-flow gap and
unlock cash-friendly scaling
Lemonade (NYSE: LMND), the digital insurance company powered by
AI and social impact, announced it has partnered with General
Catalyst (GC), a leading venture firm and an early investor in
Lemonade, to create Synthetic Agents, a novel financial structure
that unlocks growth without depleting cash.
Lemonade enjoys strong unit economics - investments in customer
acquisition (CAC) are typically repaid three times over - but the
initial CAC payback can take a couple of years. This ‘cash flow
gap’ means that many opportunities for profitable growth are passed
on, pending payback from prior acquisitions.
Insurers often turn to independent agents to solve this cash
flow gap. Though agents do deliver CAC-free customers (among other
benefits), the costs are nevertheless considerable: agents ‘own the
customer,’ and receive a lifelong commission, siphoning off much of
the potential stream of gross profit. Synthetic Agents were
designed to deliver the cash flow benefits of independent agents,
but without forfeiting the customer relationship, and without
ceding much of the gross profit for the lifetime of the
customer.
Under the program, which will commence on July 1, 2023, General
Catalyst (through its Customer Value platform) will finance up to
80% of all Lemonade’s CAC, and in return will receive a synthetic
‘commission’ of up to 16% of the stream of premiums they helped
finance. Once GC has recovered their investment and capped return
on any one cohort, the remaining ‘lifetime value’ of the customers
from that cohort accrues to Lemonade, entirely and forever.
“We think the Synthetic Agents program is something of a game
changer for Lemonade,” said Daniel Schreiber, Lemonade co-CEO and
co-founder. “Thanks to Synthetic Agents, we believe we will be able
to accelerate growth without drawing down our capital reserves or
selling more equity. That means generating a significantly larger
business, sooner, with more cash in the bank, and with a materially
higher return on capital.”
“We believe Lemonade’s Synthetic Agents program gives Lemonade a
balance sheet to invest in growth, so it can preserve its own
capital for investments in its amazing technology and people,” said
Pranav Singhvi, Managing Director, General Catalyst, and architect
of the Customer Value strategy. “We’re big fans of Lemonade, a
company that we believe has completely turned insurance upside down
and become one of the most intriguing public tech companies. As one
of Lemonade’s early backers, being able to help directly support
their next stage of growth is exactly what we built our Customer
Value strategy for.”
For more details on the overall vision and anticipated benefits
of the Synthetic Agents program, read more here, on our Lemonade
blog, which can also be accessed through our website,
www.lemonade.com/blog.
Read here to learn more about the Customer Value strategy by
General Catalyst.
Lemonade’s financial expectations for Q2 and for the full year
2023, as communicated in the Q1 ‘23 Lemonade Letter to
Shareholders, remain unchanged.
About Lemonade
Lemonade offers renters, homeowners, car, pet, and life
insurance. Powered by artificial intelligence and social impact,
Lemonade’s full stack insurance carriers in the US and the EU
replace brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning,
aiming for zero paperwork and instant everything. A Certified
B-Corp, Lemonade gives unused premiums to nonprofits selected by
its community, during its annual Giveback. Lemonade is currently
available in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, France,
and the UK, and continues to expand globally.
Follow @lemonade_inc on Twitter for updates.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995.
All statements other than statements of historical fact
contained in this Press Release, including without limitation
statements regarding the anticipated benefits of the Synthetic
Agents program and expectations regarding its impact on our capital
structure, the expected future results of operations and financial
position, and our ability to effectively manage the growth of our
business are forward-looking statements. 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.
These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but
involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important
factors that may cause our actual results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied to be materially different from
any future results, performance or achievements expressed or
implied by the forward-looking statements, including, but not
limited to the following: our history of losses and the fact that
we may not achieve or maintain profitability in the future; our
ability to retain and expand our customer base; risks related to
the "Lemonade" brand; risks related to denial of claims or our
failure to accurately and timely pay claims; our ability to attain
greater value from each user; risks related to the novelty of our
business model; risks related to our Giveback; risks related to our
limited operating history and our ability to evaluate our current
business performance, implement our business model, and our future
prospects; our ability to manage our growth effectively; the
intense competition in the segments of the insurance industry in
which we operate; risks related to reinsurance, including the
availability of reinsurance at current levels and prices and
counterparty risk; our ability to maintain our risk-based capital
at the required levels; our ability to expand our product
offerings; risks related to the operation and confidentiality of
our proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms and proprietary
technology; new legislation or legal requirements which may affect
how we communicate with our customers; risks related to our
reliance 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; our reliance 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; our ability to raise additional
capital to grow our business; risks related to security incidents
or real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our systems,
website or app; risks related to examinations by our primary state
insurance regulators and examinations or investigations by other
states in which we are licensed to operate; risks related to our
collection and use of customer information and other data, and our
ability to protect such information and comply with data privacy
and security laws and regulations; our ability to underwrite risks
accurately and charge competitive yet profitable rates to our
customers; risks related to our ability to generate revenues from
new products; risks related to our expansion within the United
States and any future international expansion strategy; risks
related to combining the businesses of Lemonade and Metromile and
the potential failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the
mergers; risks related to the historically cyclical nature of the
insurance business; risks related to extensive insurance industry
regulations; risks related to severe weather events and other
catastrophes, including the effects of climate change and global
pandemics which are inherently unpredictable; climate risks,
including risks associated with disruptions caused by the
transition to a low-carbon economy; risks related to increasing
scrutiny, actions and changing expectations from investors,
clients, regulators and our employees with respect to
environmental, social and governance matters; risks related to
fluctuations in our results of operations on a quarterly and annual
basis; risks related to utilizing customer and third party data for
pricing and underwriting our insurance policies; risks related to
limitations in the analytical models used to assess and predict our
exposure to catastrophe losses; risks related to potential losses
that could be greater than our loss and loss adjustment expense
reserves; risks related to the minimum capital and surplus
requirements that our insurance subsidiaries are required to have;
risks related to assessments and other surcharges from state
guaranty funds, and mandatory state insurance facilities; risks
related to our status and obligations as a public benefit
corporation; risks related to significant shareholders and their
ability to influence the outcome of important transactions,
including a change in control; and risks related to our operations
in Israel and the current political, economic, and military
environment.
These and other important factors described under the caption
"Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal
year ended December 31, 2022 filed on March 3, 2023 and in our
other and subsequent filings with the SEC, could cause actual
results to differ materially from those indicated by the
forward-looking statements made in this Press Release. Any such
forward-looking statements represent management’s beliefs as of the
date of this Press Release. While we may elect to update such
forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim
any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views
to change.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230629382131/en/
Yael Wissner-Levy press@lemonade.com
Lemonade (NYSE:LMND)
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