Lemonade's recent (& new) strategic moves
Florian Graillot
Investor @ astorya.vc (insurance & emerging risks ; Seed ; Europe)
Let's start with a reminder: Lemonade is a full-stack InsurTech in the US (meaning they have an insurance license). Launched in 2015, they have been offering P&C products, starting with home insurance, distributing directly to end customers.
Scale
In terms of geography, they scaled in Germany in June 2019 (where they sold 100k policies in the first 12 months of operations, see here), then in the Netherlands in April 2020 and later - in December 2020 - in France.
In terms of product range, they added pet insurance in July 2020, then life insurance in April 2021, and more recently - in November 2021 - they acquired Metromile a few days after announcing their scale into car insurance.
Positioning
Since inception, they've been attracting customers by promoting their prices or their best in class UX (as far as we see on their online ads).
Recent moves
A few days ago, they announced a plan to be distributed also through brokers.
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This move seems to highlight their insurance capacities as brokers will all of a sudden become an additional layer between Lemonade and their end customers.
Yesterday they announced their launch in the UK via a partnership with Aviva.
This move seems to highlight their UX as Aviva will all of a sudden replace their own balance sheet in carrying risks.
Views
Basically, 2 recent moves that support 2 different positioning.
If the second resonates with their long time competitive edge (at least in a marketing standpoint)
The first move rathe resonates with several other full-stack moves (Root in the US or Seyna even becoming a tool for brokers in Europe)
Assuming direct distribution and selling through brokers have very few in common, curious how to leverage assets & skills built so far towards the first into cracking the second.
On the other hand, Wefox has long been a tool for brokers, with its own insurance capacity to carry risks (since it acquired 'One' in June 2017).
embedded insurance in Europe
2 年Thanks for that insight - it seems that digital B2C sales of insurance is very hard! That is my assumption to Lemonade’s move toward brokers
Expert Finance | Formateur
2 年Florian Graillot Certainement, faut-il voir son appui auprès des intermédiaires courtiers comme une fa?on de nouer des partenariats. Car, à l'image de Reachmaker en France, force est de constater que les partenariats parfois inattendus permettent de belles réorientations en des temps records.
Partner- Strategic Initiatives @ Care Health Insurance | Building Insurtech Solutions
2 年Lemonade @ India Florian? Collaboration with new General and Life insurance entities awaiting license?
what should insurance for the 21st century look like?
2 年Can you provide a source on the plan to distribute via brokers? I cannot find it.
Father, Husband, Learner, Professor, Curious, Inventor, Technologist, Strategist and passioned about cooking
2 年Nice article Florian Graillot. Impression is that they are "A/B testing" several options for growth trying to understand what can really work best where. It seems that Lemonade could be ready also to sustain multiple positioning even if it could be questionable in terms of customer credibility. The profitability and balance sheet questions have also dictated a re-assessment of strategic options. Interesting times ahead