3 Things – Q1 Results, Lemonade Auto & Insurtech News – 4/23/2021

Hi Friends!  This week in insurance we are following Q1 results, Lemonade entering auto insurance and insurtech updates.  Here are the three things we learned this week:

 [1]

Q1 Results and Hartford Update

Q1 results are coming in.  Several carriers are reporting significant CAT losses from winter storm Uri and others.  Travelers and W.R. Berkley posted strong quarters to start 2021.  Despite also being affected by CAT losses both beat earnings per share targets and had impressive increases in their return on equity metrics.  Meanwhile, The Hartford had a tough quarter due to Boy Scouts of America settlement and is playing hard to get with Chubb rejecting more takeover offers.

 [2]

Lemonade Enters Auto Market

As expected, Lemonade starts the process of entering the car insurance market.  Not a surprising move because their strategy depends on graduating their customers and expanding products.  They are going to compete against major marketing dollars from the incumbents but hope to make a dent by gaining market share, pushing incumbents to mimic their AI-powered digital experience.  An interesting story in this post, Greenberg vs Bezos about another company who could have leveraged a significant renter’s book to make a similar move into auto but did not.

 [3]

Important Growth Milestone Achieved & Capital Raise

Home insurance startup, Kin Insurance, achieves an important growth milestone, announcing they have surpassed $100M in annual premium run rate.  They are using a niche focus and micro segmentation to power this growth and should be able to expand as their technology matures.  Gradient AI, completed a $20M Series B round of financing led by Am Fam Ventures.  Some of the funding will allow them to expand their AI/machine learning product offerings to other lines of business and use cases.

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