Why Lemonade & Metromile should keep you up at night

Lemonade’s acquisition of pay-per-mile car insurance company Metromile. In six short years, Lemonade has deftly combined a focus on customer-centric technology, partnerships and now M&A to effectively shake up the insurance landscape. (Credit: Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock)

The term “insurtech challengers” has been bandied about repeatedly amongst traditional insurers the past few years — but the strides that many of these newer and more technologically advanced entrants to the game have been making in recent years could soon put the challenger label to rest: Insurtechs are not here to take part, they’re making innovative leaps and taking bold risks with an eye to take over.

Case in point: Lemonade’s acquisition of pay-per-mile car insurance company Metromile. In six short years, Lemonade has deftly combined a focus on customer-centric technology, partnerships and now M&A to effectively shake up the insurance landscape. Metromile’s license to sell car insurance in 49 states immediately catapults Lemonade as a relevant player in the U.S. auto insurance market, while adding their precision sensors and real time, first-party data capabilities give them a competitive edge by being able to better assess pricing.