Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Lemonade, Inc.
The New York insurtech, founded in 2015 by Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger, that set out to rebuild insurance around a phone app, chatbots ("AI Maya" for sales, "AI Jim" for claims), a flat fee and a behavioural-economics bet that customers who know unclaimed premiums go to charity will cheat less; that went public in July 2020 at $29 a share and more than doubled on day one, reached a market value well above $10bn in early 2021, then lost most of it as renters, homeowners, pet and car insurance produced years of heavy losses; that bought the pay-per-mile auto insurer Metromile in 2022 for about a quarter of the price first announced; and that by 2026 had ~$1.4bn of in-force premium, a loss ratio repaired from the 70s to around 60% and below, and a stated goal of its first positive adjusted-EBITDA quarter in Q4 2026. Its story is the cleanest test in US finance of what technology can and cannot change in an insurance company: it can lower the cost of selling and servicing a policy; it cannot repeal the loss ratio.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2015, New York, by Daniel Schreiber (CEO) and Shai Wininger; first policies sold September 2016
- Headquarters
- New York, NY; large engineering and product teams in Israel; European operations from Amsterdam
- Ownership / structure
- Listed on the NYSE (ticker LMND) since 2 July 2020; a Delaware public benefit corporation and certified B Corp; risk-bearing subsidiaries include Lemonade Insurance Company (New York), Metromile Insurance Company (acquired 2022) and Lemonade Insurance N.V. (Netherlands); life insurance sold through an agency on partner carriers' paper
- Leadership (2026)
- Daniel Schreiber, co-founder and CEO; Shai Wininger, co-founder (president and co-CEO roles over time; verify current title); Tim Bixby, CFO
- Segment
- Insurer: US renters, homeowners, pet, term life (via partners) and car insurance; renters, home and contents insurance in Germany, the Netherlands, France and the UK
- Scale
- In-force premium ~$1.24bn and ~2.98m customers at end-2025; ~$1.43bn and ~3.31m customers at 30 June 2026 (company)
- Financials
- 2025 revenue ~$738m (2024: ~$527m); net loss ~$165m (2024: ~$202m); adjusted EBITDA loss ~$118m (company). Q2 2026: revenue ~$294m, gross loss ratio 60%, net loss ~$43m, adjusted EBITDA loss ~$19m; cash and investments ~$1.2bn
- IPO
- $29 a share on 1 July 2020 (trading from 2 July), ~$319m raised, ~$1.6bn valuation; first-day close ~$69, up ~139%
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding on behavioural economics and the Giveback (2015); New York launch and AI claims (2016); quota-share reinsurance programme (2020); IPO (2020); pet and life expansion (2020–21); "non-verbal cues" controversy and BIPA settlement (2021–22); Metromile and Lemonade Car (2022); synthetic-agents growth financing (2023); path to profitability (2024–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2015
Founding Behavioural Economics and Giveback
Founding
2016
New York Launch and AI Claims
Launch
2020
IPO at 29 Dollars
IPO
2020
Pet and Life Expansion
Launch / product expansion
2020
Quota Share Reinsurance Programme
Partnership / capital structure (proportional reinsurance)
2021
Non Verbal Cues Controversy and BIPA Settlement
Controversy / regulatory and class-action settlement
2022
Metromile Acquisition and Lemonade Car
Acquisition / launch
2023
Synthetic Agents Growth Financing
Funding structure (customer-acquisition financing)
2024
Path to Profitability
Restructuring / pricing (loss-ratio repair, cost discipline, retained risk)