A US based company Home insurance startup Hippo is hoping to ride the coattails of rival Lemonade with an initial public offering next year.
The Palo Alto, California-based startup said Tuesday it raised $150 million, valuing the company at $1.5 billion, Bloomberg reported. Dragoneer and Ribbit Capital participated in the round, alongside Felicis Ventures and Iconiq Capital. Hippo intends to go public next year.
The round brings Hippo’s total funding to $359 million since 2015. Previous investors include homebuilder Lennar and Fifth Wall. The company was started by Israeli entrepreneurs, CEO Assaf Wand and Eyal Navon.
Most recently valued at $1 billion, Hippo is on track to generate $100 million in revenue next year. Wand said the goal is to have a “clear path to profitability” by 2021 when Hippo will be “ready to go public.”
Earlier this month, SoftBank-backed Lemonade saw its stock price triple on its first day of trading; the company’s valuation spiked to $3.8 billion from $2.1 billion.
Wand said thanks to low interest rates, business has been booming during Covid. “Because interest rates were so low, we see a surge of people that are refinancing their mortgage,” he said.