New York:
Insurance startup Lemonade Inc, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp, said on Thursday it was looking to raise up to $286 million in its U.S. initial public offering (IPO), as the IPO market gains momentum after COVID-19 put many debuts on hold.
Earlier,New York based Insurtech major Lemonade, Inc. had announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the proposed initial public offering of its common stock in New York Stock Exchange.
Lemonade offers homeowners and renters insurance in the United States, and contents and liability insurance in Germany and the Netherlands, through its full-stack insurance carriers. Powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, Lemonade set out to replace brokers and bureaucracy with bots and machine learning, aiming for zero paperwork and instant everything.
Lemonade is currently available for most of the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, and continues to expand globally.
Lemonade’s public listing comes amid a strong appetite for new stock offerings, especially those with an online-focused business against the backdrop of the pandemic.
Earlier this month, online used car seller Vroom Inc raised $467.5 million in its IPO, and its shares more than doubled in value on debut.
Lemonade intends to sell 11 million shares in the IPO, and has set a target range of $23-$26 per share, according to a regulatory filing here
The higher end of the range gives the firm a valuation of $1.43 billion.
The company, which started in New York in late 2016, is part of a growing number of young companies looking to shake up the insurance sector through a better use of technology.
The company says it has digitized the entire insurance process, replacing brokers and paperwork with algorithms and providing policies in as little as 90 seconds and claim payments in three minutes.
Last year, it raised $300 million in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank, which also included insurer Allianz SE , Alphabet Inc’s venture capital arm GV, General Catalyst, OurCrowd and Thrive Capital.
The company intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “LMND”.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Barclays are among IPO underwriters.