Lemonade was founded by Daniel Schreiber (former president of
Powermat Technologies) and Shai Wininger (co-founder of
Fiverr) in April 2015.[7][8] Schreiber and Wininger were tech entrepreneurs with no insurance background.[4]
In August 2016, the company raised $13 million in funding from XL Innovate (part of
XL Group), followed by a $34 million
Series B funding round in December 2016.[10] The Series B round was led by
General Catalyst with participation from
Thrive Capital,
Tusk Ventures, and
GV (formerly Google Ventures).[11][12]
In May 2016, Lemonade became one of the few insurance companies to receive
B-Corporation certification.[13]
In April 2017, the company announced additional investors:
Allianz and
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures. In December 2017, Softbank invested an additional $120 million in the company in a Series C round, increasing the total money raised by the company to around $180 million.[14]
In April 2019, Lemonade announced a further $300 million investment in a Series D financing led by
SoftBank Group, with participation from Allianz, General Catalyst, GV,
OurCrowd, and
Thrive Capital, increasing the total money raised by the company to $480 million.[15][16]
In December 2020, it began offering insurance in
France.[19][20] It also won a trademark dispute with
T-Mobile over the use of the color pink.[21]
In November 2021, the company announced that it would fully acquire
Metromile, Inc.[22] The acquisition completed on July 29, 2022, following which Lemonade laid off 20% of Metromile's staff.[23] Metromile has experienced a noticeable premium decline ever since Lemonade completed the acquisition in July 2022. The company ended the first six months of 2023 with $49 million in written premiums, a 15% decrease compared to the same period in 2022. In terms of dollars, the most significant decrease occurred in California, which accounts for over 50% of Metromile’s business. The company saw premiums decline in every state it operates in.