InsurTech

Insurtech startup The Zebra achieves profitability, rolls out new offering

Startup's annual run rate is now close to $100 million

The Zebra has added some stripes. The company, which operates an online insurance comparison site, is closing in on a $100 million annual run rate, has reached profitability and has rolled out a homeowners insurance comparison tool.

After picking up $43.5 million in a Series C round in February, The Zebra posted $6 million in net revenue in May. Four months later, net revenue grew to more than $8 million. That means its annual run rate is now close to $100 million.

As part of its most recent round of funding in February, The Zebra revealed revenue of nearly $37 million in 2019 and an annual run rate of more than $60 million.

On the profit front, The Zebra says it has exited net loss territory and galloped into net income territory.

“It’s not every day that a company achieves profitability ahead of schedule during a global pandemic, but The Zebra’s team has done just that,” Keith Melnick, CEO of The Zebra, said in an Oct. 8 news release. “How? Strong partnerships with some of the nation’s best insurance companies, a diversified marketing mix, clear product vision and a stellar team who has really risen to the challenge during these critical few months.”

Since its founding in 2012, The Zebra has raised $101.3 million. It’s an early entrant in what’s becoming an increasingly crowded field of insurtech players. Among them are Hippo, Lemonade, Next Insurance and Root (which filed to go public this week). Globally, investors have pumped $7.5 billion into insurtech startups, according to Crunchbase. (Check out my insurtech funding deep dive here).

The Zebra started out as a comparison site for people looking for auto insurance. And it partners with nine of the 10 top auto insurance carriers in the U.S. Over time, it’s also “naturally” evolved to offer homeowners insurance with the goal of eventually branching out into renters and life insurance.

To capture more market share, The Zebra has officially introduced its home insurance comparison offering. The company did a soft launch of its home insurance tool in December. Before that, the company solely provided price comparisons for auto insurance. The Zebra is working on enabling shoppers to bundle home and auto insurance policies.

More than 90,000 users have taken advantage of the homeowners insurance product since the soft launch. The Zebra supplies options for homeowners coverage in the 48 contiguous states.

“With the auto comparison platform serving more than 4 million consumers annually, we knew the time was right to deepen the relationship with our customers by helping them find the best insurance policies for their homes,” Martina Hahn, chief product officer at The Zebra, said in a news release. “So far, we’ve served new homeowners like myself looking for their first-ever policy, and people on their fourth home who are making sure they’re properly covered in these uncertain financial times.”

Hahn is among more than 270 employees of the Austin-based company.

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