Hippo Insurance

Hippo is a digital homeowner insurance provider. The company offers its homeowner policies online, with each policy accompanied by a complementary smart home monitoring system that will help identify risks proactively. It provides coverage using a combination of machine learning, satellite imagery, and other public records and actively reviews for any changes to the property overtime.

Hippo also provides home insurance to buyers of newly built homes that is directly integrated to the digital mortgage and title process through its Builders business. Further, it launched Hippo Builder Insurance Agency (HBIA) in January 2023, to allow builders of all sizes to partner with HBIA to send leads of homeowners in return for a fee.

The company also offers an on-demand homecare and maintenance app (Hippo Homecare) which it launched in 2019 following the acquisition of Sheltr, a home maintenance platform, during the same year. It also launched “Book a Pro'' feature within its mobile app in Q4 2022, which allows homeowners based in Texas to connect to home improvement professionals as well as message its Hippo’s own home care experts to get advice. Hippo also plans to roll-out this feature to other states in the future.

In June 2020, Hippo entered into an agreement to acquire long-time insurance partner Spinnaker Insurance Company, which is a property and casualty insurer registered in all 50 states, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was expected to help the company expand its geographical reach. The company’s homeowner offering was available in 40 states as of January 2023.

Key customers and partnerships

Hippo had 332,000 customers as of September 2022, and it claimed nearly 75% of its new customers were Gen B.

The company partnered with property and casualty risk intelligence company, Opterrix in April 2023 , to leverage its real-time data on severe weather events to identify at-risk policyholders and improve its claims management capabilities.

Funding and financials

In November 2020, Hippo raised USD 350 million from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance company. The company expects to use this funding to support its national expansion plans and also evaluate acquisition opportunities to grow inorganically.

For FY2022, the company recorded total generated premiums of USD 811.1 million, which was up 33.8% YoY. Its gross loss ratio improved 62 percentage points to 76% during the year, while its net loss improved 10.2% YoY to USD 333.4 million.