Root Insurance Co-Founders Dan Manges (left) and Alex Timm (right). Photo credit: Root Insurance

Root Insurance, a well-funded automotive and rentals insurance upstart, has formally filed for a public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission, seeking to go public just five years after its founding and with a history of rapid growth that’s seen it raise over $500 million in private funding. Root is backed by a slew of big-name investors including the likes of DST Global, Coatue, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners. The Ohio-based company was valued at $3.65 billion from its most recent funding round.

In a crowd of insurance companies, Root differentiates itself by offering automotive and rentals insurance policies with an experience centered entirely on a mobile phone. The company has majorly been an auto insurer and only began offering rentals insurance this year. As indicated by its S-1 filing, Root clinched $290 million in revenue in 2019, nearly 7x its revenue of $43 million in the previous year. The company is, however, not profitable, reporting losses of $282 million and $69 million in 2019 and 2018 respectively. For the first half of this year, Root recorded $245 million in revenue, compared to $104 million in the same period last year. Losses for the first half of this year came at $144.5 million, compared to $97 million in the same period last year.

Root Insurance initially filed confidentially for a public listing in August of this year. A group of investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank are acting as joint bookrunners for the company’s public offering. Root plans to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker “ROOT”. The Ohio-based company has listed a placeholder amount of $100 million, a number that’s likely to change. 

Share this...

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Linkedin

Whatsapp

Email

Print