EverQuote, Inc. (EVER)
SIC breadcrumb: Services > Business Services > SIC 7370 Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc.
SEC company page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=1640428. Latest filing source: 0001193125-26-066957.
Informational only - descriptive public-record data, not investment advice.
Business
Read EVER's verbatim Item 1 Business section from its latest 10-K: Business.
Risk Factors
Read EVER's verbatim Item 1A Risk Factors from its latest 10-K: Risk Factors.
Selected Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Unit | FY | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 692,521,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-02-24 |
| Net income | 99,311,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-02-24 |
| Assets | 326,913,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-02-24 |
Financials
Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-02-24. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001640428.json. Derived margins, ratios, and free cash flow are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.
| Metric | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 163,349,000 | 248,811,000 | 346,935,000 | 418,515,000 | 404,127,000 | 287,921,000 | 500,190,000 | 692,521,000 | ||
| Net income | -5,071,000 | -13,791,000 | -7,117,000 | -11,202,000 | -19,434,000 | -24,416,000 | -51,287,000 | 32,169,000 | 99,311,000 | |
| Operating income | -4,689,000 | -13,912,000 | -8,049,000 | -11,682,000 | -21,924,000 | -24,788,000 | -51,975,000 | 31,751,000 | 58,336,000 | |
| Diluted EPS | -0.28 | -0.41 | -0.67 | -0.77 | -1.54 | 0.88 | 2.63 | |||
| Operating cash flow | -1,672,000 | -1,897,000 | 4,413,000 | 10,668,000 | 7,189,000 | -15,791,000 | -2,828,000 | 66,566,000 | 95,381,000 | |
| Capital expenditures | 1,185,000 | 3,668,000 | 2,975,000 | 3,822,000 | 2,862,000 | 4,290,000 | 3,840,000 | 4,114,000 | 5,057,000 | |
| Share buybacks | 9,229,000 | 21,024,000 | ||||||||
| Assets | 20,519,000 | 65,746,000 | 91,221,000 | 129,050,000 | 143,607,000 | 156,519,000 | 110,925,000 | 210,530,000 | 326,913,000 | |
| Liabilities | 20,126,000 | 22,562,000 | 39,451,000 | 58,068,000 | 58,482,000 | 49,033,000 | 30,018,000 | 75,162,000 | 88,873,000 | |
| Stockholders' equity | -25,658,000 | -50,544,000 | 43,184,000 | 51,770,000 | 70,982,000 | 85,125,000 | 107,486,000 | 80,907,000 | 135,368,000 | 238,040,000 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 2,363,000 | 41,634,000 | 46,054,000 | 42,870,000 | 34,851,000 | 30,835,000 | 37,956,000 | 102,116,000 | 171,379,000 | |
| Free cash flow | -2,857,000 | -5,565,000 | 1,438,000 | 6,846,000 | 4,327,000 | -20,081,000 | -6,668,000 | 62,452,000 | 90,324,000 |
Ratios
| Metric | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net margin | -8.44% | -2.86% | -3.23% | -4.64% | -6.04% | -17.81% | 6.43% | 14.34% | ||
| Operating margin | -8.52% | -3.23% | -3.37% | -5.24% | -6.13% | -18.05% | 6.35% | 8.42% | ||
| Return on equity | -31.94% | -13.75% | -15.78% | -22.83% | -22.72% | -63.39% | 23.76% | 41.72% | ||
| Return on assets | -24.71% | -20.98% | -7.80% | -8.68% | -13.53% | -15.60% | -46.24% | 15.28% | 30.38% | |
| Liabilities / equity | 0.52 | 0.76 | 0.82 | 0.69 | 0.46 | 0.37 | 0.56 | 0.37 | ||
| Current ratio | 1.18 | 2.83 | 2.22 | 2.08 | 1.79 | 1.78 | 2.31 | 2.36 | 2.94 |
Industry Peer Context
Net margin peer context
Operating margin peer context
ROE peer context
ROA peer context
Financial Bridges
Free cash flow = operating cash flow - capital expenditures
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts FY 2025. Operating cash flow: accession 0001193125-26-066957; concept NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities; source concepts us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities | Capital expenditures: accession 0001193125-26-066957; concept PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets; source concepts us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets | Free cash flow: accession 0001193125-26-066957; concept NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities - PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets; source concepts us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities; us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets
Financial Charts
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax. Source concepts: us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: NetIncomeLoss. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: OperatingIncomeLoss. Source concepts: us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: EarningsPerShareDiluted. Source concepts: us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets. Source concepts: us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock. Source concepts: us-gaap:PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: Assets. Source concepts: us-gaap:Assets.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: Liabilities. Source concepts: us-gaap:Liabilities.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: StockholdersEquity. Source concepts: us-gaap:StockholdersEquity.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue. Source concepts: us-gaap:CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2025 ended 2025-12-31; accession 0001193125-26-066957; filed 2026-02-24. Concept: NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities - PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities; us-gaap:PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets.
Quarterly
Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-05-05. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001640428.json.
| Quarter | End Date | Revenue | Net Income | Diluted EPS | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-Q2 | 2022-06-30 | 0.12 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2022-Q3 | 2022-09-30 | -0.20 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q1 | 2023-03-31 | -0.08 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q2 | 2023-03-31 | -2,529,000 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q2 | 2023-06-30 | 67,985,000 | -0.40 | reported discrete quarter | |
| 2023-Q3 | 2023-06-30 | -13,193,000 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q3 | 2023-09-30 | 55,011,000 | -0.87 | reported discrete quarter | |
| 2023-Q4 | 2023-12-31 | 55,705,000 | -6,348,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2024-Q1 | 2024-03-31 | 91,065,000 | 1,907,000 | 0.05 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q2 | 2024-03-31 | 1,907,000 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2024-Q2 | 2024-06-30 | 117,140,000 | 0.17 | reported discrete quarter | |
| 2024-Q3 | 2024-06-30 | 6,402,000 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2024-Q3 | 2024-09-30 | 144,530,000 | 0.31 | reported discrete quarter | |
| 2024-Q4 | 2024-12-31 | 147,455,000 | 12,306,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2025-Q1 | 2025-03-31 | 166,632,000 | 7,990,000 | 0.21 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q2 | 2025-03-31 | 7,990,000 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2025-Q2 | 2025-06-30 | 156,629,000 | 0.39 | reported discrete quarter | |
| 2025-Q3 | 2025-06-30 | 14,701,000 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2025-Q3 | 2025-09-30 | 173,940,000 | 0.50 | reported discrete quarter | |
| 2025-Q4 | 2025-12-31 | 195,320,000 | 57,755,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2026-Q1 | 2026-03-31 | 190,852,000 | 18,673,000 | 0.51 | reported discrete quarter |
Quarterly Charts
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-03-31; accession 0001193125-26-206363; filed 2026-05-05. Concept: RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax. Source concepts: us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-03-31; accession 0001193125-26-206363; filed 2026-05-05. Concept: NetIncomeLoss. Source concepts: us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss.
Figure provenance: SEC companyfacts. Latest point: FY 2026 ended 2026-03-31; accession 0001193125-26-206363; filed 2026-05-05. Concept: EarningsPerShareDiluted. Source concepts: us-gaap:EarningsPerShareDiluted.
Macro Cross-References
- CPIAUCSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
- UNRATE - Unemployment Rate
- FEDFUNDS - Federal Funds Effective Rate
- CES0500000003 - Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private
- DFEDTARU - Federal Funds Target Range - Upper Limit
- DFEDTARL - Federal Funds Target Range - Lower Limit
- DGS3MO - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 3-Month Constant Maturity
- DGS2 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 2-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS10 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS30 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 30-Year Constant Maturity
- T10Y2Y - 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 2-Year Treasury Constant Maturity
- CPILFESL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy
- CPIUFDSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food
- CPIENGSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Energy
- CUSR0000SAH1 - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Shelter
- PCEPI - Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index
- PCEPILFE - Personal Consumption Expenditures Excluding Food and Energy: Chain-type Price Index
- PPIACO - Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
- T10YIE - 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate
- U6RATE - Total Unemployed, Plus All Marginally Attached Workers Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons
- PAYEMS - All Employees, Total Nonfarm
- CIVPART - Labor Force Participation Rate
- EMRATIO - Employment-Population Ratio
- UNEMPLOY - Unemployed
- CE16OV - Employment Level
- ICSA - Initial Claims
- JTSJOL - Job Openings: Total Nonfarm
- JTSQUR - Quits: Total Nonfarm
- GDPC1 - Real Gross Domestic Product
- A191RL1Q225SBEA - Real Gross Domestic Product: Percent Change from Preceding Period
- INDPRO - Industrial Production: Total Index
- TCU - Capacity Utilization: Total Index
- HOUST - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started: Total Units
- PERMIT - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
- RSAFS - Advance Retail Sales: Retail Trade
- PCE - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- DSPIC96 - Real Disposable Personal Income
- PSAVERT - Personal Saving Rate
- M2SL - M2
- BOPGSTB - U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: Balance
- MSPUS - Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States
- HSN1F - New One Family Houses Sold: United States
- RHORUSQ156N - Homeownership Rate in the United States
- TTLCONS - Total Construction Spending: Total Construction in the United States
- RRVRUSQ156N - Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States
- TOTALSL - Total Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- REVOLSL - Revolving Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- DRCCLACBS - Delinquency Rate on Credit Card Loans, All Commercial Banks
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product
- GPDI - Gross Private Domestic Investment
- GCE - Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment
- PCEC - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- NETEXP - Net Exports of Goods and Services
- GFDEBTN - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt
- GFDEGDQ188S - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product
- FYFSD - Federal Surplus or Deficit
- FGRECPT - Federal Government Current Receipts
- FGEXPND - Federal Government: Current Expenditures
- MANEMP - All Employees, Manufacturing
- USCONS - All Employees, Construction
- USTRADE - All Employees, Retail Trade
- USFIRE - All Employees, Financial Activities
- USGOVT - All Employees, Government
- AWHAETP - Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private
- DGORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Durable Goods
- NEWORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft
- BUSINV - Total Business Inventories
- EXPGS - Exports of Goods and Services
- IMPGS - Imports of Goods and Services
- IR - Import Price Index (End Use): All Commodities
- PPIFIS - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Final Demand
Latest quarter (10-Q)
Latest 10-Q source: 0001193125-26-206363.
Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes and other financial information included elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and other financial information included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include those discussed below, elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, particularly in Item 1A. Risk Factors, and in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025.
We are a leading AI-powered growth solutions partner for regulated property and casualty insurance entities, enabling the largest insurance carriers and thousands of agents to maximize customer acquisition across digital channels. Fueled by our proprietary data assets and our AI traffic engine, EverQuote is transforming the way providers attract and engage consumers to grow market share.
We operate a marketplace to connect insurance providers to a large volume of high-intent, pre-validated consumer referrals that match the insurers’ specific underwriting and profitability requirements. The transparency of our marketplace, as well as the campaign management tools we offer, are designed to make it easy for insurance carriers and third-party agents to evaluate the performance of their marketing spend on our platform and manage their own return on investment. We present consumers with a single starting point for a comprehensive insurance shopping experience where consumers can engage with insurance carriers through multiple channels based on their preferences. Our marketplace enables consumers to choose to visit an insurance provider’s website to purchase a policy or engage with a carrier or agent by phone or submit their data to insurance providers to receive quotes. Our services are free for consumers, and we derive our revenue principally from consumer inquires sold as referrals to insurance providers.
In the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, our total revenue was $190.9 million and $166.6 million, respectively, representing a year-over-year increase of 14.5%. We had net income of $18.7 million and $8.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively, and had $29.3 million and $22.5 million in adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, respectively. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income (loss) determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future growth depend on a number of factors that present opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below, elsewhere in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, particularly in Item 1A. Risk Factors, and in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025.
Auto insurance industry risk
For the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, we derived 90% and 92%, respectively, of our revenue from auto insurance providers and our financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. Furthermore, total revenue from our largest auto insurance carrier customer was 40% of our revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and total revenue from our two largest auto insurance carrier customers was 43% and 13% of our revenue, respectively, for the three months ended March 31, 2025. Business cycles within the auto insurance industry heavily impact our carrier customers’ advertising spend with us, such as in 2022 and 2023 when the auto insurance industry experienced deteriorated underwriting performance due to a rise in claims, inflation, and inadequate policy premiums, which had a negative impact on the pricing and demand for consumer referrals in our marketplace throughout 2023.
Expanding consumer traffic
Our success depends in part on the growth of our consumer traffic. We have historically increased consumer traffic to our marketplace by expanding existing advertising channels and adding new channels such as by engaging with consumers through our verified partner network. Over the long term, we plan to increase consumer traffic by leveraging the features and growing the data assets of our platform. While we plan to grow consumer traffic, we have the ability to decrease advertising spend when the revenue associated with such consumer traffic does not result in incremental profit to our business or in response to lower demand for consumer referrals. Further, our profitability will be impacted by our ability to acquire quote requests in significant volume, at prices that are attractive, and that represent high-intent shoppers for which insurance providers will purchase referrals.
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Increasing the number of insurance providers and their respective spend in our marketplace
Our success also depends on our ability to retain and grow our insurance provider network. Historically, we have generally expanded both the number of insurance providers and the spend per provider on our platform. However, we have also experienced periods of decreasing carrier spend in the automotive insurance vertical as described above.
Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including GAAP operating results and the key metrics listed below, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections, and make operating and strategic decisions. Some of these metrics are non-financial metrics or are financial metrics that are not defined by GAAP.
Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, legal settlement expense, interest income and income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we present in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. We monitor and present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered together with other operating and financial performance measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Also, Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. For further explanation of the uses and limitations of this measure and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, net income (loss), please see “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure”.
Variable Marketing Dollars and Margin
We define variable marketing dollars, or VMD, as revenue, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income, less advertising costs (a component of sales and marketing expense, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income). We define variable marketing margin, or VMM, as VMD divided by revenue.
We use VMD and VMM to measure the efficiency of individual advertising and consumer acquisition sources and to make trade-off decisions to manage our return on advertising. We do not use VMD or VMM as a measure of profitability.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate our revenue primarily from consumer inquiries sold as referrals to insurance provider customers, consisting of carriers and agents, as well as to indirect distributors. To simplify the quoting process for the consumer and improve performance for the provider, we are able to provide consumer-submitted quote request data along with each referral. We recognize revenue from consumer referrals at the time of delivery. We support three secure consumer referral formats:
•
Clicks: An online-to-online referral, with a handoff of the consumer to the provider’s website.
•
Data: An online-to-offline referral, with quote request data transmitted to the provider for follow-up.
•
Calls: An online-to-offline referral for outbound calls and an offline-to-offline referral for inbound calls, with the consumer and provider connected by phone.
For the periods presented, our total revenue consisted of revenue generated within our insurance verticals as follows:
| Three Months Ended March 31, | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2025 | ||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||
| Automotive | $ | 172,386 | $ | 152,715 | |||
| Home and renters | 18,466 | 13,904 | |||||
| Other | — | 13 | |||||
| Total revenue | $ | 190,852 | $ | 166,632 |
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We expect an overall increase in revenue in 2026 as compared to 2025, driven by our automotive and home and renters verticals, as we anticipate increased spending from our carrier partners. We expect revenue from our other insurance verticals to be insignificant in 2026 as a result of our focus on the P&C market.
Cost and Operating Expenses
Our cost and operating expenses consist of cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative and legal settlement expense.
We allocate certain overhead expenses, such as rent, utilities, office supplies and depreciation and amortization of general office assets, to cost of revenue and operating expense categories based on headcount. As a result, an overhead expense allocation is reflected in cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses. Personnel-related costs included in cost of revenue and operating expense categories include wages, fringe benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised primarily of the costs of operating our marketplace and delivering consumer referrals to our customers. These costs consist primarily of technology service costs including hosting, software, data services, and third-party call center costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes depreciation and amortization of our platform technology assets and personnel-related costs.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of advertising and marketing expenditures as well as personnel-related costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing, data analytics and consumer acquisition functions. Advertising expenditures consist of variable costs that are related to attracting consumers to our marketplace, generating consumer quote requests, including the cost of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, and promoting our marketplace to carriers and agents. Advertising costs are expensed as incurred. Marketing costs consist primarily of content and creative development, public relations, memberships, and event costs. We expect our sales and marketing expense will increase as we expect increased carrier spend for referrals, which will impact our advertising expenditures.
Research and Development
Research and development expense consists primarily of per
[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]
Latest 10-K MD&A
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
Overview
We operate a leading online marketplace for insurance shopping, connecting consumers with insurance provider customers, which includes both carriers and agents. Our vision is to be the leading growth partner for P&C insurance providers. Our results-driven marketplace, powered by our proprietary data and technology platform, is improving the way insurance providers attract and connect with consumers shopping for insurance.
We operate a marketplace to connect insurance providers to a large volume of high-intent, pre-validated consumer referrals that match the insurers’ specific underwriting and profitability requirements. The transparency of our marketplace, as well as the campaign management tools we offer, are designed to make it easy for insurance carriers and third-party agents to evaluate the performance of their marketing spend on our platform and manage their own return on investment. We present consumers with a single starting point for a comprehensive insurance shopping experience where consumers can engage with insurance carriers through multiple channels based on their preferences. Our marketplace enables consumers to choose to visit an insurance provider’s website to purchase a policy or engage with a carrier or agent by phone or submit their data to insurance providers to receive quotes. Our services are free for consumers, and we derive our revenue principally from consumer inquiries sold as referrals to insurance providers.
In the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, our total revenue was $692.5 million, $500.2 million and $287.9 million, respectively, representing year-over-year increases of 38.5% from 2024 to 2025 and 73.7% from 2023 to 2024. We had net income of $99.3 million and $32.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, and a net loss of $51.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, and had $94.6 million, $58.2 million and $0.5 million in adjusted EBITDA for these same periods, respectively. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income (loss) determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future growth depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section titled “Risk Factors.”
Auto insurance industry risk
For the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, we derived 91% and 89%, respectively, of our revenue from auto insurance providers and our financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. Furthermore, total revenue from our two largest customers accounted for 38% and 11%, respectively, of our total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2025 and revenue from our largest auto insurance carrier customer was 39% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024. Business cycles within the auto insurance industry heavily impact our carrier customers’ advertising spend with us, such as the downturn we saw in 2022 and 2023, when the auto insurance industry experienced deteriorated underwriting performance due to a rise in claims, inflation, and inadequate policy premiums, which had a negative impact on the pricing and demand for consumer referrals in our marketplace throughout 2023. The state of the auto insurance market remains volatile, and while spending patterns have significantly improved since 2023, a number of our top carrier customers remain below their peak historical spend.
Expanding consumer traffic
Our success depends in part on the growth of our consumer traffic. We have historically increased consumer traffic to our marketplace by expanding existing advertising channels and adding new channels such as by engaging with consumers through our verified partner network. Over the long term, we plan to increase consumer traffic by leveraging the features and growing the data assets of our platform. While we plan to grow consumer traffic, we have the ability to decrease advertising spend when the revenue associated with such consumer traffic does not result in incremental profit to our business or in response to lower demand for consumer referrals. Further, our profitability will be impacted by our ability to acquire quote requests in significant volume, at prices that are attractive, and that represent high-intent shoppers for which insurance providers will purchase referrals.
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Increasing the number of insurance providers and their respective spend in our marketplace
Our success also depends on our ability to retain and grow our insurance provider network. Historically, we have generally expanded both the number of insurance providers and the spend per provider on our platform. However, we have also experienced periods of decreasing carrier spend in the automotive insurance vertical as described above.
Regulation
Our revenue and earnings may fluctuate from time to time as a result of changes to federal, state, and industry-based laws and regulations, or changes to standards concerning the enforcement thereof. Our business could be affected directly because we operate websites, conduct telephonic and email marketing, and collect, store, share, and use consumer information and other data. Our business also could be affected indirectly if our customers were to adjust their operations as a result of regulatory changes and enforcement activity. For example, on January 26, 2024, the FCC published regulations which, among other things, would have amended the consent requirements of the TCPA by requiring “one-to-one consent” for outbound telemarketing calls or texts made using an automatic telephone dialing system or pre-recorded or artificial voice messages to wireless or residential numbers. On January 24, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated these amended regulations, which were scheduled to go into effect on January 27, 2025. Also, on June 20, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Hobbs Act does not bind district courts in civil enforcement proceedings to an agency’s interpretation of a statute, including the FCC’s interpretation of the TCPA. It remains unclear whether or how government agencies or legislatures will revisit telephone call consent issues.
In addition, a number of states have enacted (and others are considering) broad data privacy laws that could affect our business. Although it remains unclear how these new privacy laws may be modified or interpreted, their effects could have an impact on our business, and may require us to modify our data use practices and policies and incur compliance-related costs and expenses.
Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including GAAP operating results and the key metrics listed below, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections, and make operating and strategic decisions. Some of these metrics are non-financial metrics or are financial metrics that are not defined by GAAP.
Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, legal settlement expense, restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related costs, interest income and income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. We monitor and present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered together with other operating and financial performance measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Also, Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. For further explanation of the uses and limitations of this measure and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, net income (loss), please see “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure.”
Variable Marketing Dollars and Margin
We define variable marketing dollars, or VMD, as revenue, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), less advertising costs (a component of sales and marketing expense, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss)). We define variable marketing margin, or VMM, as VMD divided by revenue.
We use VMD and VMM to measure the efficiency of individual advertising and consumer acquisition sources and to make trade-off decisions to manage our return on advertising. We do not use VMD or VMM as a measure of profitability.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate our revenue primarily from consumer inquiries sold as referrals to insurance provider customers, consisting of carriers and agents, as well as to indirect distributors. To simplify the quoting process for the consumer and improve performance for the provider, we are able to provide consumer-submitted quote request data along with each referral. We recognize revenue from consumer referrals at the time of delivery. We support three secure consumer referral formats:
•
Clicks: An online-to-online referral, with a handoff of the consumer to the provider’s website.
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•
Data: An online-to-offline referral, with quote request data transmitted to the provider for follow-up.
•
Calls: An online-to-offline referral for outbound calls and an offline-to-offline referral for inbound calls, with the consumer and provider connected by phone.
Prior to the sale of carrier contracts in May 2025, we also generated revenue in the automotive insurance vertical from commission fees for the sale of policies as part of our direct to consumer agency and, prior to our exit from the health insurance vertical in 2023, we generated commission revenue in our other insurance vertical. Commission revenue represented less than 1% of total revenue for each of the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, and less than 10% of revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023.
For the periods presented, our total revenue consisted of revenue generated within our insurance verticals as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Automotive | $ | 629,831 | $ | 446,095 | $ | 227,505 | |||||
| Home and renters | 62,650 | 52,013 | 40,889 | ||||||||
| Other | 40 | 2,082 | 19,527 | ||||||||
| Total revenue | $ | 692,521 | $ | 500,190 | $ | 287,921 |
We expect an overall increase in revenue in 2026 as compared to 2025, driven by our automotive and home and renters verticals, as we anticipate increased spending from our carrier partners. We expect revenue from our other insurance verticals to be insignificant in 2026 as a result of our focus on the P&C market.
Cost and Operating Expenses
Our cost and operating expenses consist of cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative, legal settlement, restructuring and other charges and acquisition-related costs.
We allocate certain overhead expenses, such as rent, utilities, office supplies and depreciation and amortization of general office assets, to cost of revenue and operating expense categories based on headcount. As a result, an overhead expense allocation is reflected in cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses. Personnel-related costs included in cost of revenue and operating expense categories include wages, fringe benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised primarily of the costs of operating our marketplace and delivering consumer referrals to our customers. These costs consist primarily of technology service costs including hosting, software, data services, and third-party call center costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes depreciation and amortization of our platform technology assets and personnel-related costs.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of advertising and marketing expenditures as well as personnel-related costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing, data analytics and consumer acquisition functions and amortization of sales and marketing-related intangible assets. Advertising expenditures consist of variable costs that are related to attracting consumers to our marketplace, generating consumer quote requests, including the cost of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, and promoting our marketplace to carriers and agents. Advertising costs are expensed as incurred. Marketing costs consist primarily of content and creative development, public relations, memberships, and event costs. We expect our sales and marketing expense will increase as we expect increased carrier spend for referrals, which will impact our advertising expenditures.
Research and Development
Research and development expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs for software development and product management. We have focused our research and development efforts on improving ease of use and functionality of our existing marketplace platform and developing new offerings and internal tools. We primarily expense research and development costs. Direct development costs related to software enhancements that add functionality are capitalized and amortized as a component of cost of revenue. We expect that research and development expense will increase in 2026 as compared to 2025.
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General and Administrative
General and administrative expense consists of personnel-related costs and related expenses for executive, finance, legal, human resources, technical support and administrative personnel as well as the costs associated with professional fees for external legal, accounting and other consulting services, insurance premiums and payment processing and billing costs. We expect that general and administrative expense will increase in 2026 as compared to 2025, primarily due to personnel-related costs.
Legal settlement
Legal settlement includes costs associated with the settlement of our litigation in 2025 with the former owners of certain entities acquired in 2021 (see Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K).
Restructuring and Other Charges
Restructuring and other charges includes costs related to the restructuring and our exit from the health insurance vertical that we completed in 2023.
Acquisition-related
Acquisition-related costs include expenses associated with third-party professional services we utilize for the evaluation and execution of acquisitions as well as changes in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our acquisitions of Eversurance and PolicyFuel, which occurred in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) consists of interest income and other income (expense). Interest income consists of interest earned on invested cash balances. Other income (expense) consists of miscellaneous income (expense) unrelated to our core operations.
Income Taxes
Income tax benefit (expense) is based on taxable income (loss), applicable income tax rates, net research and development tax credits, net operating loss carryforwards, changes in valuation allowance estimates and deferred income taxes. In the fourth quarter of 2025, based on our ongoing assessment of all available evidence, both positive and negative, including sustained improvement in our profitability, we concluded that it is more likely than not that our net deferred tax assets would be realized and released our valuation allowance of $48.5 million against these net deferred tax assets. Our judgment regarding the likelihood of realization of these deferred tax assets could change in future periods, which could result in a material impact to our income tax benefit (expense) in the period of change.
As a result of the release of our valuation allowance, we expect our tax rate will increase in the future. However, we intend to use our net operating loss carryforwards and tax credits, to the extent available, to reduce the cash tax payments associated with our operations.
Non-GAAP Financial Measure
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP and to provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted EBITDA is not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.
Adjusted EBITDA. We define adjusted EBITDA as our net income (loss), excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expense; depreciation and amortization expense; legal settlement expense; restructuring and other charges; acquisition-related costs; interest income; and income taxes. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to adjusted EBITDA is net income (loss). We monitor and present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. In particular, we believe that excluding the impact of these expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core operating performance.
We use adjusted EBITDA to evaluate our operating performance and trends and make planning decisions. We believe adjusted EBITDA helps identify underlying trends in our business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of the expenses that we exclude in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects.
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Adjusted EBITDA is not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered in isolation of, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are a number of limitations related to the use of adjusted EBITDA rather than net income (loss), which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense as it has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring non-cash expense for our business;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization expense and, although this is a non-cash expense, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes legal settlement expense that affects cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes restructuring and other charges, which includes the sale of health assets, that affects cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes acquisition-related costs that affects cash available to us and the change in fair value of non-cash contingent consideration liabilities;
•
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the cash received from interest income on our investments, which affects the cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect income taxes that affects cash available to us; and
•
the expenses and other items that we exclude in our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may differ from the expenses and other items, if any, that other companies may exclude from adjusted EBITDA when they report their operating results.
In addition, other companies may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of adjusted EBITDA as a tool for comparison.
The following table reconciles adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
Reconciliation of Net Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 99,311 | $ | 32,169 | $ | (51,287 | ) | |||||
| Stock-based compensation | 24,299 | 20,614 | 22,808 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 3,811 | 5,672 | 6,196 | |||||||||
| Legal settlement | 8,232 | — | — | |||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | — | — | 23,568 | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | — | — | (150 | ) | ||||||||
| Interest income | (3,574 | ) | (2,079 | ) | (1,251 | ) | ||||||
| Income taxes | (37,488 | ) | 1,839 | 577 | ||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 94,591 | $ | 58,215 | $ | 461 |
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Results of Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods shown:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Statement of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||
| Revenue(1) | $ | 692,521 | $ | 500,190 | $ | 287,921 | ||||||
| Cost and operating expenses(2): | ||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | 19,375 | 20,922 | 22,455 | |||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 541,008 | 387,700 | 240,131 | |||||||||
| Research and development | 31,504 | 29,553 | 27,591 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 34,066 | 30,264 | 26,301 | |||||||||
| Legal settlement | 8,232 | — | — | |||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | — | — | 23,568 | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | — | — | (150 | ) | ||||||||
| Total cost and operating expenses | 634,185 | 468,439 | 339,896 | |||||||||
| Income (loss) from operations | 58,336 | 31,751 | (51,975 | ) | ||||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||
| Interest income | 3,574 | 2,079 | 1,251 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | (87 | ) | 178 | 14 | ||||||||
| Total other income, net | 3,487 | 2,257 | 1,265 | |||||||||
| Income (loss) before income taxes | 61,823 | 34,008 | (50,710 | ) | ||||||||
| Income tax benefit (expense) | 37,488 | (1,839 | ) | (577 | ) | |||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 99,311 | $ | 32,169 | $ | (51,287 | ) | |||||
| Other Financial and Operational Data: | ||||||||||||
| Variable marketing dollars | $ | 191,855 | $ | 155,227 | $ | 100,282 | ||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(3) | $ | 94,591 | $ | 58,215 | $ | 461 |
(1)
Comprised of revenue from the following distribution channels:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
| Direct channels | 87 | % | 86 | % | 81 | % | ||||||
| Indirect channels | 13 | % | 14 | % | 19 | % | ||||||
| 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
(2)
Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 122 | $ | 182 | $ | 219 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 7,139 | 6,796 | 8,667 | ||||||||
| Research and development | 6,291 | 5,502 | 8,053 | ||||||||
| General and administrative | 10,747 | 8,134 | 5,869 | ||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | — | — | 1,288 | ||||||||
| $ | 24,299 | $ | 20,614 | $ | 24,096 |
(3) See “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure and a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its comparable GAAP financial measure.
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Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2025 and 2024
Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 692,521 | $ | 500,190 | $ | 192,331 | 38.5 | % |
Revenue increased by $192.3 million from $500.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $692.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2025. The increase in revenue was primarily due to an increase of $183.7 million in our automotive vertical due to an increase in carrier spend for referrals, primarily from our three largest customers. Revenue also increased in our home and renters vertical by $10.6 million due to an increase in carrier spend for referrals.
Cost of Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 19,375 | $ | 20,922 | $ | (1,547 | ) | -7.4 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 2.8 | % | 4.2 | % |
Cost of revenue decreased from $20.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $19.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2025. Decreases in personnel-related costs of $0.8 million related primarily to decreased headcount in our call center. Amortization expense decreased by $0.7 million primarily due to certain assets being fully depreciated in the third quarter of 2024. Increases in technology and consulting costs were fully offset by decreases in lead verification services and office and occupancy costs due to lower headcount and lower rent expense.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing expense | $ | 541,008 | $ | 387,700 | $ | 153,308 | 39.5 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 78.1 | % | 77.5 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $153.3 million from $387.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $541.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2025. The increase in sales and marketing expense was primarily due to an increase in advertising costs of $155.7 million due to an increase in carrier spend and increases in lead verification services and consulting services of $0.8 million and $0.7 million, respectively. These increases were partially offset by a decrease in office and occupancy costs of $1.4 million due primarily to lower rent expense and a decrease in amortization expense of $1.2 million due to the sale of acquired intangible assets in May 2025 as part of the settlement of litigation. Marketing costs also decreased by $0.5 million.
Research and Development
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Research and development expense | $ | 31,504 | $ | 29,553 | $ | 1,951 | 6.6 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 4.5 | % | 5.9 | % |
Research and development expenses increased by $2.0 million from $29.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $31.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2025. The increase in research and development expense was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $1.2 million due to increased headcount and increased consulting expense of $0.5 million.
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General and Administrative
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative expense | $ | 34,066 | $ | 30,264 | $ | 3,802 | 12.6 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 4.9 | % | 6.1 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $3.8 million from $30.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 to $34.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2025. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $2.3 million, primarily due to increased stock-based compensation expense, and an increase in professional fees of $0.9 million for consulting services. Personnel-related costs included $10.7 million and $8.1 million of stock-based compensation expense for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Bank service fees also increased by $0.6 million.
Legal Settlement
Legal settlement expense for the year ended December 31, 2025 consisted of costs to settle the litigation of $7.8 million and legal expense related to the settlement of $0.4 million. For additional information, see Note 3 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) included interest income of $3.6 million and $2.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. The increase in interest income in 2025 was due to higher invested cash balances. Other income (expense), net was not significant for either of the years ended December 31, 2025 or 2024.
Income Taxes
We had an income tax benefit of $37.5 million for 2025, as compared to income tax expense of $1.8 million in 2024. Our effective tax rate was (60.6%) and 5.4% for 2025 and 2024, respectively. Our effective tax rate for 2025 differs from the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21.0% primarily due to the decrease in the valuation allowance maintained against our net deferred tax assets and federal and state research and development tax credits. In the fourth quarter of 2025, we concluded that it is more likely than not that our net deferred tax assets are realizable, resulting in a valuation allowance release of $48.5 million. Our effective tax rate for 2024 differs from the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21.0% primarily due to the valuation allowance previously maintained against our net deferred tax assets, partially offset by state and federal income taxes for the portion of our taxable income that was not offset by operating loss and tax credit carryforwards.
Variable Marketing Dollars and Margin
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 692,521 | $ | 500,190 | $ | 192,331 | 38.5 | % | ||||||||
| Less: total advertising expense (a component of sales and marketing expense) | 500,666 | 344,963 | ||||||||||||||
| Variable marketing dollars | $ | 191,855 | $ | 155,227 | $ | 36,628 | 23.6 | % | ||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | 27.7 | % | 31.0 | % |
The increase in variable marketing dollars was due primarily to increased carrier spend. The decrease in variable marketing margin was primarily due to competitive pricing for advertising spend and the relative mix of referral types.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
For a discussion of our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
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Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity are cash and cash equivalents of $171.4 million as of December 31, 2025 and up to $60.0 million of availability under our revolving line of credit.
On August 1, 2025, we entered into a new senior secured revolving credit facility with the Lenders. This facility replaced the prior $25.0 million revolving line of credit with Western Alliance Bank. The Credit Agreement provides for a $60.0 million senior secured revolving line of credit. Subject to customary terms and conditions (including the absence of any default or event of default under the Credit Agreement), we shall have the right, from time to time, to request incremental revolving commitments in an aggregate amount not to exceed up to $25.0 million during the term of the Credit Agreement. Availability under the Credit Agreement will terminate on August 1, 2028, or the Revolving Commitment Period, and all outstanding revolving loans must be paid on or before such date. We will pay a commitment fee of 0.075% per annum on the average daily unused portion of commitments under the Credit Agreement during the Revolving Commitment Period.
Pursuant to the Credit Agreement, borrowings under the Revolving Facility cannot exceed 85% of eligible accounts receivable balances. Outstanding borrowings under the Revolving Facility bear interest, at our election, at a per annum rate equal to (i) an adjusted term secured overnight financing rate for a one-month tenor, or the Term SOFR, plus 2.10% or (ii) the higher of the “prime rate” quoted in The Wall Street Journal, the weighted average of the rates on overnight federal funds transactions with members of the Federal Reserve System plus 0.50%, or Term SOFR plus 1.00%, or the ABR, plus 1.10%. We may elect, from time to time, to convert all or any part of our Term SOFR loans to ABR loans or to convert all or any part of the ABR loans to Term SOFR loans. In an event of default, as defined in the Credit Agreement, and until such event is no longer continuing, the annual interest rate to be charged will be the annual rate otherwise applicable to borrowings at such time plus 2.00%.
Borrowings are collateralized by substantially all of our assets and property. Under the Credit Agreement, we have agreed to certain affirmative and negative covenants, reporting requirements and other customary requirements to which we will remain subject until maturity. The covenants include limitations on our ability to incur additional indebtedness, pay cash dividends, and engage in certain fundamental business transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions of other businesses. In addition, under the Credit Agreement and through the maturity date, for any period we do not maintain a minimum Adjusted Quick Ratio of 1.30 to 1.00, defined as the ratio of (1) the sum of (x) unrestricted cash and cash equivalents held at the Lenders plus (y) net accounts receivable reflected on our balance sheet (excluding accounts receivable that are more than 90 days past due, intercompany receivables, and receivables subject to dispute) to (2) current liabilities, including all borrowings outstanding under Credit Agreement, but excluding the current portion of deferred revenue (in each case determined substantially in accordance with GAAP), the Agent shall have the ability to use our cash receipts to repay outstanding obligations until such time as the Adjusted Quick Ratio is equal to or greater than 1.30 to 1.00 for two consecutive months.
On July 22, 2025, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program for up to $50.0 million of our Class A common stock for one year from the board approval date. Share repurchases under the $50.0 million program may be made from time to time on the open market, pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, or by other legally permissible means. The share repurchase program does not obligate us to acquire a specific number of shares, and may be suspended, modified, or terminated at any time, without prior notice. The number of shares to be repurchased will depend on market conditions and other factors. Repurchases under the program are expected to be funded from a combination of existing cash balances and future cash flow. In August 2025, we repurchased $21.0 million of Class A shares from Link Ventures and its affiliated entities, and as of December 31, 2025, $29.0 million remained available for stock repurchases pursuant to the board authorization. During January and February 2026, we repurchased an additional $8.7 million of Class A common shares under the program via a 10b5-1 trading plan.
We believe our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months from the issuance date of the consolidated financial statements, without considering the borrowing availability under the Credit Agreement. Our future capital requirements may vary materially from those currently planned and will depend on many factors, including our revenue, the timing and extent of spending on business initiatives, purchases of common stock under our share repurchase program, purchases of capital equipment to support our growth, sales and marketing activities, expansion of our business through acquisitions or our investments in complementary offerings, technologies or businesses, market acceptance of our platform and overall economic conditions. If we do not achieve our revenue goals as planned, we believe that we can reduce our operating costs. If we need additional funds and are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may need to significantly curtail our operations in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations, which could adversely affect our business prospects.
In addition, we have an effective universal shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the SEC that permits us to sell up to $150.0 million of any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, rights or units from time to time and at prices and on terms that we may determine. The net proceeds of any securities we sell under this registration statement may be used for general corporate purposes, including among other possible uses, the acquisition of companies or businesses, repayment and refinancing of debt, working capital and capital expenditures. At this time, we have no plans to sell any such securities under this registration statement.
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Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 95,381 | $ | 66,566 | $ | (2,828 | ) | |||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | (5,057 | ) | (4,114 | ) | 9,354 | |||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities | (21,064 | ) | 1,707 | 577 | ||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | 3 | 1 | 18 | |||||||||
| Net increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | 69,263 | $ | 64,160 | $ | 7,121 |
Operating activities
Operating activities provided $95.4 million and $66.6 million of cash during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2025 resulted from our net income of $99.3 million, partially offset by net non-cash income of $2.4 million and net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $1.6 million. Net non-cash income included a net increase in deferred taxes of $38.4 million, primarily due to the release of our valuation allowance, partially offset by a litigation accrual settled with the sale of assets of $7.8 million and other non-cash charges of $28.2 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $13.8 million increase in accounts receivable and a $4.4 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets, partially offset by a net $14.8 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities.
Cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2024 resulted from our net income of $32.2 million, net non-cash charges of $26.3 million and net cash provided by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $8.1 million. Net cash provided by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $43.7 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities and a $4.9 million decrease in commissions receivable, partially offset by a $40.2 million increase in accounts receivable.
Changes in accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other current assets and accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities were generally due to level of activity in our business and timing of customer and vendor invoicing and payments.
Investing activities
Net cash used in investing activities was $5.1 million and $4.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, consisting of cash used to acquire property and equipment, which included the capitalization of software development costs. During the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, we capitalized $4.6 million and $2.8 million, respectively, of software development costs.
Financing activities
During the year ended December 31, 2025, net cash used in financing activities was $21.1 million primarily due to $21.0 million used to repurchase common stock under our share repurchase program from Link Ventures and its affiliated entities. Cash proceeds received from the exercise of common stock options of $3.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2025 were offset by tax withholding payments of $4.0 million relating to net share settlements. During the year ended December 31, 2024, net cash provided by financing activities was $1.7 million, consisting of proceeds received from the exercise of common stock options, partially offset by tax withholding payments relating to net share settlements.
For a discussion of our cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2023 see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Cash Flows included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our cash flows are dependent on a number of factors in addition to our operational expenditures, including our share repurchase program and our contractual and other obligations. As a result, our liquidity and capital resources in future periods should be analyzed in conjunction with such factors.
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We lease office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts under non-cancelable operating leases through December 2027. We lease office space in Belfast, Northern Ireland pursuant to a sublease that expires in July 2027. As of December 31, 2025, we were obligated to make total minimum lease payments of $2.8 million under such leases, of which $1.4 million is payable in 2026.
In June 2025, we entered into a five-year, $18.5 million purchase commitment, in the ordinary course of business, for advertising with specified annual minimum payment amounts through July 2029. The remaining purchase commitment as of December 31, 2025 was $15.5 million, of which $3.5 million relates to the next twelve months.
We have outstanding agreements with various vendors for hosting and other technical services. We believe that we will be able to fund these obligations through our existing cash and cash equivalents.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements, appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we believe that the following accounting policies are those most critical to the judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to our insurance provider customers, including insurance carriers, agents and indirect distributors. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that we determine are within the scope of ASC 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation.
We only apply the five-step model to contracts when collectibility of the consideration to which we are entitled in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer is determined to be probable. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional. We do not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is that the period between payment by the customer and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the customer will be one year or less. We recognize referral revenue when we satisfy our performance obligations by delivering the referrals to our customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those referrals.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock options and other stock-based awards granted to employees, nonemployees and directors based on their fair value on the date of the grant. We recognize compensation expense of employee awards, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We apply the straight-line method of expense recognition to all employee awards with only service-based vesting conditions and apply the graded-vesting method to all employee awards with both service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, commencing when achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. Compensation expense for nonemployee awards is recognized in the same manner as if we had paid cash for the goods or services received, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award.
We estimate the fair value of stock options with service-based vesting or performance-based vesting granted using the Black Scholes option pricing model, which uses as inputs the fair value of our common stock and assumptions we make for the volatility of our common stock, the expected term of our common stock options, the risk-free interest rate for a period that approximates the expected term of our common stock options, and our expected dividend yield. We estimate the fair value of RSUs granted based on the market value of our common stock on the date of grant.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
A description of recently issued accounting pronouncements that may potentially impact our financial position and results of operations is disclosed in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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MD&A history
Prior-year 10-K MD&A spans are extracted from SEC filings with the same bounded parser used for the latest filing. The latest 10-K appears above; prior years are below.
FY 2024 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000950170-25-026724.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
Overview
We operate a leading online marketplace for insurance shopping, connecting consumers with insurance provider customers, which includes both carriers and agents. Our vision is to be the leading growth partner for P&C insurance providers. Our results-driven marketplace, powered by our proprietary data and technology platform, is improving the way insurance providers attract and connect with consumers shopping for insurance.
We operate a marketplace to connect insurance providers to a large volume of high-intent, pre-validated consumer referrals that match the insurers’ specific underwriting and profitability requirements. The transparency of our marketplace, as well as the campaign management tools we offer, are designed to make it easy for insurance carriers and third-party agents to evaluate the performance of their marketing spend on our platform and manage their own return on investment. We present consumers with a single starting point for a comprehensive insurance shopping experience where consumers can engage with insurance carriers through multiple channels based on their preferences. Our marketplace enables consumers to choose to visit an insurance provider’s website to purchase a policy or engage with a carrier or agent by phone or submit their data to insurance providers to receive quotes. Our services are free for consumers, and we derive our revenue principally from consumer inquires sold as referrals to insurance providers.
In 2023, we exited our health insurance vertical, an area that would have required significant capital investment and scale to effectively compete amid an increasingly unpredictable regulatory environment, to increase focus on core verticals, and implemented a workforce reduction plan, or the Reduction Plan, to improve operating efficiency. We refer to the exit of our health insurance vertical and the Reduction Plan as our restructuring, which we completed by September 30, 2023.
In the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, our total revenue was $500.2 million, $287.9 million and $404.1 million, respectively, representing a year-over-year increase of 73.7% from 2023 to 2024 and a year-over-year decrease of 28.8% from 2022 to 2023. We had net income of $32.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 and net losses of $51.3 million and $24.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, and had $58.2 million, $0.5 million and $5.9 million in adjusted EBITDA for these same periods, respectively. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income (loss) determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future growth depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section titled “Risk Factors.”
Auto insurance industry risk
For the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, we derived 89% and 79%, respectively, of our revenue from auto insurance providers and our financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. Furthermore, total revenue from our largest auto insurance carrier customer was 39% of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024 and revenue from our two largest customers was 27% in the aggregate of our revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023. In 2023 and 2022, the auto insurance industry experienced deteriorated underwriting performance due to a rise in claims, inflation, and inadequate policy premiums. This deteriorated underwriting performance caused our insurance carrier customers to reduce spending on new customer acquisition, which had a negative impact on the pricing and demand for consumer referrals in our marketplace throughout 2023. The state of the auto insurance market remains volatile, and while we saw improvements in spending patterns in 2024, including from our largest carrier customer, not all of our carrier customers have increased their spend in a proportional or significant manner, and a full recovery could be prolonged by further cost inflation, increased claim severity and frequency, or insufficient policy premium increases.
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Expanding consumer traffic
Our success depends in part on the growth of our consumer traffic. We have historically increased consumer traffic to our marketplace by expanding existing advertising channels and adding new channels such as by engaging with consumers through our verified partner network. Over the long term, we plan to increase consumer traffic by leveraging the features and growing the data assets of our platform. While we plan to grow consumer traffic, we have the ability to decrease advertising spend when the revenue associated with such consumer traffic does not result in incremental profit to our business or in response to lower demand for consumer referrals. Further, our profitability will be impacted by our ability to acquire quote requests in significant volume, at prices that are attractive, and that represent high-intent shoppers for which insurance providers will purchase referrals.
Increasing the number of insurance providers and their respective spend in our marketplace
Our success also depends on our ability to retain and grow our insurance provider network. Historically, we have generally expanded both the number of insurance providers and the spend per provider on our platform. In the more recent past, we experienced periods of decreasing carrier spend in the automotive insurance vertical as described above.
Regulation
Our revenue and earnings may fluctuate from time to time as a result of changes to federal, state, and industry-based laws and regulations, or changes to standards concerning the enforcement thereof. Our business could be affected directly because we operate websites, conduct telephonic and email marketing, and collect, store, share, and use consumer information and other data. Our business also could be affected indirectly if our customers were to adjust their operations as a result of regulatory changes and enforcement activity. For example, on January 26, 2024, the FCC published regulations which, among other things, would have amended the consent requirements of the TCPA by requiring “one-to-one consent” for outbound telemarketing calls or texts made using an automatic telephone dialing system or pre-recorded or artificial voice messages to wireless or residential numbers. On January 24, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated these amended regulations, which were scheduled to go into effect on January 27, 2025. It remains unclear whether or how government agencies or legislatures will revisit telephone call consent issues.
In addition, a number of states have enacted (and others are considering) broad data privacy laws that could affect our business. Although it remains unclear how these new privacy laws may be modified or interpreted, their effects could have an impact on our business, and may require us to modify our data use practices and policies and incur compliance-related costs and expenses.
Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including GAAP operating results and the key metrics listed below, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections, and make operating and strategic decisions. Some of these metrics are non-financial metrics or are financial metrics that are not defined by GAAP.
Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related costs, interest income and income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. We monitor and present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered together with other operating and financial performance measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Also, Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. For further explanation of the uses and limitations of this measure and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, net income (loss), please see “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure.”
Variable Marketing Dollars and Margin
We define variable marketing dollars, or VMD, as revenue, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), less advertising costs (a component of sales and marketing expense, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss)). We define variable marketing margin, or VMM, as VMD divided by revenue.
We use VMD and VMM to measure the efficiency of individual advertising and consumer acquisition sources and to make trade-off decisions to manage our return on advertising. We do not use VMD or VMM as a measure of profitability.
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Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate our revenue primarily from consumer inquiries sold as referrals to insurance provider customers, consisting of carriers and agents, as well as to indirect distributors. To simplify the quoting process for the consumer and improve performance for the provider, we are able to provide consumer-submitted quote request data along with each referral. We recognize revenue from consumer referrals at the time of delivery. We support three secure consumer referral formats:
•
Clicks: An online-to-online referral, with a handoff of the consumer to the provider’s website.
•
Data: An online-to-offline referral, with quote request data transmitted to the provider for follow-up.
•
Calls: An online-to-offline referral for outbound calls and an offline-to-offline referral for inbound calls, with the consumer and provider connected by phone.
We also generate revenue from commissions paid to us by insurance carriers for the sale of policies by our direct to consumer, or DTC, insurance agency in our automotive insurance vertical, and prior to our exit from health in 2023, in our health insurance vertical. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation, which we consider to be submission of the policy application to the insurance carrier. We recognize revenue based on our constrained estimate of commission payments we expect to receive over the lifetime of the policies sold, which we refer to as constrained LTVs, of commission payments. Commission revenue represented less than 10% of total revenue for each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, and 13% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2022. Since our exit from the health vertical in 2023, commission revenue has decreased significantly, and we do not expect it to be a material source of revenue in the future.
For the periods presented, our total revenue consisted of revenue generated within our insurance verticals as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Automotive | $ | 446,095 | $ | 227,505 | $ | 324,417 | |||||
| Home and Renters | 52,013 | 40,889 | 31,909 | ||||||||
| Other | 2,082 | 19,527 | 47,801 | ||||||||
| Total Revenue | $ | 500,190 | $ | 287,921 | $ | 404,127 |
Cost and Operating Expenses
Our cost and operating expenses consist of cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative expenses, restructuring and other charges and acquisition-related costs.
We allocate certain overhead expenses, such as rent, utilities, office supplies and depreciation and amortization of general office assets, to cost of revenue and operating expense categories based on headcount. As a result, an overhead expense allocation is reflected in cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses. Personnel-related costs included in cost of revenue and operating expense categories include wages, fringe benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised primarily of the costs of operating our marketplace and delivering consumer referrals to our customers. These costs consist primarily of technology service costs including hosting, software, data services, and third-party call center costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes depreciation and amortization of our platform technology assets and personnel-related costs.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of advertising and marketing expenditures as well as personnel-related costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing, data analytics and consumer acquisition functions and amortization of sales and marketing-related intangible assets. Advertising expenditures consist of variable costs that are related to attracting consumers to our marketplace, generating consumer quote requests, including the cost of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, and promoting our marketplace to carriers and agents. Advertising costs are expensed as incurred. Marketing costs consist primarily of content and creative development, public relations, memberships, and event costs. We expect our sales and marketing expense will increase as we expect increased carrier spend for referrals, which will impact our advertising expenditures.
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Research and Development
Research and development expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs for software development and product management. We have focused our research and development efforts on improving ease of use and functionality of our existing marketplace platform and developing new offerings and internal tools. We primarily expense research and development costs. Direct development costs related to software enhancements that add functionality are capitalized and amortized as a component of cost of revenue. We expect that research and development expense will increase modestly in 2025 as compared to 2024.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expense consists of personnel-related costs and related expenses for executive, finance, legal, human resources, technical support and administrative personnel as well as the costs associated with professional fees for external legal, accounting and other consulting services, insurance premiums and payment processing and billing costs. We expect that general and administrative expense will increase modestly in 2025 as compared to 2024.
Restructuring and Other Charges
Restructuring and other charges includes costs related to the recent restructuring and our exit of the health insurance vertical. We completed this restructuring and exit from health in 2023.
Acquisition-related
Acquisition-related costs include expenses associated with third-party professional services we utilize for the evaluation and execution of acquisitions as well as changes in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our acquisitions of Eversurance and PolicyFuel, which occurred in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) consists of interest income and other income (expense). Interest income consists of interest earned on invested cash balances. Other income (expense) consists of miscellaneous income (expense) unrelated to our core operations.
Income Taxes
Income tax expense is based on our estimate of taxable income, applicable income tax rates, net research and development tax credits, net operating loss carryforwards, changes in valuation allowance estimates and deferred income taxes.
Non-GAAP Financial Measure
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP and to provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted EBITDA is not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.
Adjusted EBITDA. We define adjusted EBITDA as our net income (loss), excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expense; depreciation and amortization expense; restructuring and other charges; acquisition-related costs; interest income; and income taxes. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to adjusted EBITDA is net income (loss). We monitor and present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. In particular, we believe that excluding the impact of these expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core operating performance.
We use adjusted EBITDA to evaluate our operating performance and trends and make planning decisions. We believe adjusted EBITDA helps identify underlying trends in our business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of the expenses that we exclude in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects.
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Adjusted EBITDA is not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered in isolation of, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are a number of limitations related to the use of adjusted EBITDA rather than net income (loss), which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense as it has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring non-cash expense for our business;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization expense and, although this is a non-cash expense, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes restructuring and other charges, which includes the sale of health assets, that affects cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes acquisition-related costs that affects cash available to us and the change in fair value of non-cash contingent consideration liabilities;
•
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the cash received from interest income on our investments, which affects the cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect income taxes that affects cash available to us; and
•
the expenses and other items that we exclude in our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may differ from the expenses and other items, if any, that other companies may exclude from adjusted EBITDA when they report their operating results.
In addition, other companies may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of adjusted EBITDA as a tool for comparison.
The following table reconciles adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
Reconciliation of Net Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 32,169 | $ | (51,287 | ) | $ | (24,416 | ) | ||||
| Stock-based compensation | 20,614 | 22,808 | 28,986 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 5,672 | 6,196 | 5,848 | |||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | — | 23,568 | — | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | — | (150 | ) | (4,135 | ) | |||||||
| Interest income | (2,079 | ) | (1,251 | ) | (349 | ) | ||||||
| Income taxes | 1,839 | 577 | — | |||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 58,215 | $ | 461 | $ | 5,934 |
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Results of Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods shown:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Statement of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||
| Revenue(1) | $ | 500,190 | $ | 287,921 | $ | 404,127 | ||||||
| Cost and operating expenses(2): | ||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | 20,922 | 22,455 | 23,980 | |||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 387,700 | 240,131 | 349,255 | |||||||||
| Research and development | 29,553 | 27,591 | 31,713 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 30,264 | 26,301 | 28,102 | |||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | — | 23,568 | — | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | — | (150 | ) | (4,135 | ) | |||||||
| Total cost and operating expenses | 468,439 | 339,896 | 428,915 | |||||||||
| Income (loss) from operations | 31,751 | (51,975 | ) | (24,788 | ) | |||||||
| Other income: | ||||||||||||
| Interest income | 2,079 | 1,251 | 349 | |||||||||
| Other income, net | 178 | 14 | 23 | |||||||||
| Total other income, net | 2,257 | 1,265 | 372 | |||||||||
| Income (loss) before income taxes | 34,008 | (50,710 | ) | (24,416 | ) | |||||||
| Income tax expense | (1,839 | ) | (577 | ) | — | |||||||
| Net income (loss) | $ | 32,169 | $ | (51,287 | ) | $ | (24,416 | ) | ||||
| Other Financial and Operational Data: | ||||||||||||
| Variable marketing dollars | $ | 155,227 | $ | 100,282 | $ | 128,258 | ||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(3) | $ | 58,215 | $ | 461 | $ | 5,934 |
(1)
Comprised of revenue from the following distribution channels:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||
| Direct channels | 86 | % | 81 | % | 86 | % | ||||||
| Indirect channels | 14 | % | 19 | % | 14 | % | ||||||
| 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
(2)
Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 182 | $ | 219 | $ | 281 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 6,796 | 8,667 | 11,018 | ||||||||
| Research and development | 5,502 | 8,053 | 10,328 | ||||||||
| General and administrative | 8,134 | 5,869 | 7,359 | ||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | — | 1,288 | — | ||||||||
| $ | 20,614 | $ | 24,096 | $ | 28,986 |
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(3) See “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure and a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its comparable GAAP financial measure.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2024 and 2023
Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 500,190 | $ | 287,921 | $ | 212,269 | 73.7 | % |
Revenue increased by $212.3 million from $287.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 to $500.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The increase in revenue was due to an increase of $218.6 million in our automotive insurance vertical and an increase of $11.1 million in our home and renters insurance vertical, partially offset by a decrease of $17.4 million in our other insurance verticals. The increase in revenue from our automotive vertical was due to an increase in carrier spend for referrals of $223.8 million, a significant portion of which was from our largest customer, partially offset by a decrease in commission revenue of $5.2 million. The increase in revenue from our home and renters insurance vertical was primarily due to an increase in carrier spend for referrals. The decrease in revenue from our other insurance verticals was due to a decrease in commission revenue of $10.3 million and a decrease in carrier spend for referrals of $7.2 million, both due primarily to our exit from the health insurance vertical in 2023.
Cost of Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 20,922 | $ | 22,455 | $ | (1,533 | ) | -6.8 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 4.2 | % | 7.8 | % |
Cost of revenue decreased from $22.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 to $20.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. Cost of revenue decreased primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related costs of $1.4 million related primarily to decreased headcount related to our exit of the health insurance vertical, partially offset by an increase in third-party call center costs of $0.7 million due primarily to a net increase in call volume. Depreciation and amortization costs decreased by $0.7 million in 2024 due primarily to the acceleration of useful life of health insurance related assets and depreciation costs of technology assets that were fully depreciated in 2023 as they were no longer being used. Hosting costs also decreased by $0.3 million.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing expense | $ | 387,700 | $ | 240,131 | $ | 147,569 | 61.5 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 77.5 | % | 83.4 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $147.6 million from $240.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 to $387.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The increase in sales and marketing expense was primarily due to an increase in advertising costs of $157.3 million due to an increase in carrier spend, partially offset by a decrease in personnel-related costs of $9.2 million, primarily in our DTC agency. Personnel-related costs included stock-based compensation expense of $6.8 million and $8.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Technology services and agent license fees also decreased by $0.8 million and $0.6 million, respectively, due primarily to our exit from the health insurance vertical in 2023 and reduction in personnel, while marketing costs increased by $0.7 million due primarily to branding costs and customer events.
Research and Development
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Research and development expense | $ | 29,553 | $ | 27,591 | $ | 1,962 | 7.1 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 5.9 | % | 9.6 | % |
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Research and development expenses increased by $2.0 million from $27.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 to $29.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The increase in research and development expense was due primarily to an increase in personnel-related costs of $1.7 million related primarily to net compensation. Personnel-related costs included stock-based compensation expense of $5.5 million and $8.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Travel, office allocations and consulting costs also increased by $0.4 million, $0.4 million and $0.3 million, respectively. Technology service costs decreased by $0.9 million due to decreased cloud services usage.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative expense | $ | 30,264 | $ | 26,301 | $ | 3,963 | 15.1 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 6.1 | % | 9.1 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $4.0 million from $26.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 to $30.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2024. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $2.2 million and an increase in professional fees of $1.8 million for consulting services, partially offset by decreases in legal fees and insurance expense of $0.3 million each. Personnel-related costs included stock-based compensation expense of $8.1 million and $5.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively.
Restructuring and Other Charges
There were no restructuring and other charges for the year ended December 31, 2024. Restructuring and other charges of $23.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted of the loss on the sale of health insurance vertical assets of $19.4 million and an asset impairment charge of $0.4 million for the right-of-use asset related to our Cambridge, Massachusetts office lease. Restructuring costs and other charges also included net employee separation charges and non-cash compensation related to the restructuring of $3.8 million.
Acquisition-related Costs
There were no acquisition-related costs for the year ended December 31, 2024. Acquisition-related costs for the year ended December 31, 2023 were $(0.2) million and consisted of a credit to acquisition-related costs for the decrease in fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) included interest income of $2.1 million and $1.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase in interest income in 2024 was due to higher invested cash balances. Other income (expense), net was not significant for either of the years ended December 31, 2024 or 2023.
Income Taxes
Income tax expense of $1.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2024 consisted primarily of state and federal income taxes for the portion of our taxable income that was not offset by operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. Income tax expense of $0.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted primarily of foreign and state income expense. As of December 31, 2024, we have federal and state net operating loss carryforwards of $70.1 million and $82.5 million, respectively, that can be used to offset a portion of future taxable income. We maintain a valuation allowance on our overall net deferred tax asset as it is deemed more likely than not the net deferred tax asset will not be realized.
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Variable Marketing Dollars and Margin
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 500,190 | $ | 287,921 | $ | 212,269 | 73.7 | % | ||||||||
| Less: total advertising expense (a component of sales and marketing expense) | 344,963 | 187,639 | ||||||||||||||
| Variable marketing dollars | $ | 155,227 | $ | 100,282 | $ | 54,945 | 54.8 | % | ||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | 31.0 | % | 34.8 | % |
The increase in variable marketing dollars was due primarily to increased carrier spend. The decrease in variable marketing margin was primarily due to the relative mix of referral types and competitive pricing for advertising spend.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022
For a discussion of our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity are cash and cash equivalents of $102.1 million as of December 31, 2024 and up to $25.0 million of availability under our revolving line of credit pursuant to the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement (defined as the Amended and Restated Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of August 7, 2020 between us and Western Alliance Bank, as Lender, or the 2020 Loan Agreement, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement dated as of July 15, 2022, or the 2022 Loan Amendment, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement dated as of August 1, 2023, or the 2023 Consent and Release, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement, dated as of on August 7, 2023, or the 2023 Loan Amendment, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement, dated as of September 4, 2024).
Pursuant to the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, borrowings under the revolving line of credit cannot exceed 85% of eligible accounts receivable balances, bear interest at the greater of 7.0% or the prime rate as published in The Wall Street Journal and mature on July 15, 2025. In an event of default, as defined in the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, and until such event is no longer continuing, the annual interest rate to be charged would be the annual rate otherwise applicable to borrowings under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement plus 5.00%.
Borrowings are collateralized by substantially all of our assets and property. Under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, we have agreed to certain affirmative and negative covenants to which we will remain subject until maturity. The covenants include limitations on our ability to incur additional indebtedness and engage in certain fundamental business transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions of other businesses. In addition, under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement and through the maturity date, we are required to maintain a minimum Adjusted Quick Ratio of 1.10 to 1.00 defined as the ratio of (1) the sum of (x) unrestricted cash and cash equivalents held at the Lender plus (y) net accounts receivable reflected on our balance sheet to (2) current liabilities, including all borrowings outstanding under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, but excluding the current portion of deferred revenue (in each case determined in accordance with GAAP). At any time the Adjusted Quick Ratio is less than 1.30 to 1.00 the Lender shall have the ability to use our cash receipts to repay outstanding obligations until such time as the Adjusted Quick Ratio is equal to or greater than 1.30 to 1.00 for two consecutive months. As of December 31, 2024, we were in compliance with these covenants and we had no amounts outstanding under the revolving line of credit.
In addition, we have an effective universal shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the SEC that permits us to sell up to $150.0 million of any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, rights or units from time to time and at prices and on terms that we may determine. The net proceeds of any securities we sell under this registration statement may be used for general corporate purposes, including among other possible uses, the acquisition of companies or businesses, repayment and refinancing of debt, working capital and capital expenditures. At this time we have no plans to sell any such securities under this registration statement.
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Prior to 2024, we incurred annual operating losses and we may incur losses in the future. We believe our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months from the issuance date of the consolidated financial statements, without considering the borrowing availability under our revolving line of credit. Our future capital requirements may vary materially from those currently planned and will depend on many factors, including our revenue, the timing and extent of spending on business initiatives, purchases of capital equipment to support our growth, sales and marketing activities, impact to our business from our recent restructuring, expansion of our business through acquisitions or our investments in complementary offerings, technologies or businesses, market acceptance of our platform and overall economic conditions. If we do not achieve our revenue goals as planned, we believe that we can reduce our operating costs. If we need additional funds and are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may need to significantly curtail our operations in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations, which could adversely affect our business prospects.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | 66,566 | $ | (2,828 | ) | $ | (15,791 | ) | ||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | (4,114 | ) | 9,354 | (4,290 | ) | |||||||
| Net cash provided by financing activities | 1,707 | 577 | 15,842 | |||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | 1 | 18 | (27 | ) | ||||||||
| Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | 64,160 | $ | 7,121 | $ | (4,266 | ) |
Operating activities
Operating activities provided $66.6 million and used $2.8 million of cash during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2024 resulted from our net income of $32.2 million, net non-cash charges of $26.3 million and net cash provided by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $8.1 million. Net cash provided by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $43.7 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities and a $4.9 million decrease in commissions receivable, partially offset by a $40.2 million increase in accounts receivable.
Cash used by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2023 resulted from our net loss of $51.3 million and net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $1.7 million, partially offset by net non-cash charges of $50.1 million, which included a loss on sale of health assets of $19.4 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $15.0 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities, partially offset by an $8.2 million decrease in accounts receivable, a $4.2 million decrease in commissions receivable and a $1.0 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets.
Changes in accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other current assets and accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities were generally due to level of activity in our business and timing of customer and vendor invoicing and payments. Collection of commissions receivable depends upon the timing of our receipt of commission payments from insurance carriers. A significant portion of our commissions receivable asset is classified as long term.
Investing activities
Net cash used in investing activities was $4.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, consisting of cash used to acquire property and equipment, which included the capitalization of software development costs. Net cash provided by investing activities was $9.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, consisting of cash proceeds from the sale of Eversurance LLC of $13.2 million, partially offset by the acquisition of property and equipment of $3.8 million, which included the capitalization of certain software development costs.
Financing activities
During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, net cash provided by financing activities was $1.7 million and $0.6 million, respectively. Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 consisted of proceeds received from the exercise of common stock options, partially offset by tax withholding payments relating to net share settlements.
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For a discussion of our cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2022 see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Cash Flows included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our cash flows are dependent on a number of factors in addition to our operational expenditures, including our contractual and other obligations. As a result, our liquidity and capital resources in future periods should be analyzed in conjunction with such factors.
We lease office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts under non-cancelable operating leases through December 2027. We lease office space in Belfast, Northern Ireland pursuant to a sublease that expires in July 2027. As of December 31, 2024, we were obligated to make total minimum lease payments of $4.1 million under such leases, of which $1.4 million is payable in 2025.
We have outstanding agreements with various vendors for hosting and other technical services. We believe that we will be able to fund these obligations through our existing cash and cash equivalents.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements, appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we believe that the following accounting policies are those most critical to the judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to our insurance provider customers, including insurance carriers, agents and indirect distributors. We also generate revenue from commission fees for the sale of policies, primarily in our automotive insurance vertical, and prior to our exit from health in 2023, in our health insurance vertical. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that we determine are within the scope of ASC 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation.
We only apply the five-step model to contracts when collectibility of the consideration to which we are entitled in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer is determined to be probable. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional. We do not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is that the period between payment by the customer and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the customer will be one year or less.
Referral Revenue
We recognize referral revenue when we satisfy our performance obligations by delivering the referrals to our customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those referrals.
Commission Revenue and Commissions Receivable
Our commission revenue consists of the constrained LTVs of commission payments that we expect to receive in our automotive insurance vertical, and prior to our exit from health in 2023, that we expected to receive in our health insurance vertical on the sale of insurance policies to consumers and renewals of such policies. Commission revenue represented less than 10% of total revenue for each of the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, and 13% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2022. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation. We consider our performance obligation related to commissions for both the initial policy sale and future renewals of the policy to be satisfied upon submission of the policy application. Therefore, a significant portion of the commission revenue we record upon satisfaction of our performance obligation is paid by our insurance provider customer over a multi-year time frame as policyholders renew and pay the insurance provider for their policies.
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The current portion of commissions receivable consists of estimated commissions on new policies sold and estimated renewal commissions on policies expected to be renewed within one year, while the non-current portion of commissions receivable are commissions for estimated renewals expected to be renewed beyond one year. Our estimate of constrained LTVs underlying the commissions receivable balance is based on an analysis of historical commission payment trends for relevant policies to establish an expected lifetime value and incorporates our judgment in interpreting those trends to calculate LTVs and to apply constraints to such LTVs. To the extent that we make changes to our estimates of constrained LTVs, we recognize any material impact of the change as an adjustment to revenue and commissions receivable in the reporting period in which the change is made. We had commissions receivable of $7.1 million as of December 31, 2024, of which $3.0 million was classified as current.
Goodwill and Acquired Intangible Assets
We record goodwill when consideration paid in a business acquisition exceeds the value of the net assets acquired. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable at that time but that are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. Assumptions may be incomplete or inaccurate, and unanticipated events or circumstances may occur, which may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results. During the measurement period, which extends no later than one year from the acquisition date, we may record certain adjustments to the carrying value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the corresponding offset to goodwill. After the measurement period, all adjustments are recorded in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) as operating expenses or income.
Goodwill is not amortized, but rather is tested for impairment annually in the fourth quarter, or more frequently if facts and circumstances warrant a review, such as significant underperformance of the business in relation to expectations, significant negative industry or economic trends and significant changes or planned changes in the use of the assets. We have determined that there is a single reporting unit for the purpose of conducting our goodwill impairment assessment. We assess both the existence of potential impairment and the amount of impairment loss by comparing the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. Intangible assets are recorded at their estimated fair values at the date of acquisition. We amortize acquired intangible assets over their estimated useful lives based on the pattern of consumption of the economic benefits or, if that pattern cannot be readily determined, on a straight-line basis. To date, we have not recorded any impairments of goodwill or acquired intangible assets.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock options and other stock-based awards granted to employees, nonemployees and directors based on their fair value on the date of the grant. We recognize compensation expense of employee awards, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We apply the straight-line method of expense recognition to all employee awards with only service-based vesting conditions and apply the graded-vesting method to all employee awards with both service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, commencing when achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. Compensation expense for nonemployee awards is recognized in the same manner as if we had paid cash for the goods or services received, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award.
We estimate the fair value of stock options with service-based vesting or performance-based vesting granted using the Black Scholes option pricing model, which uses as inputs the fair value of our common stock and assumptions we make for the volatility of our common stock, the expected term of our common stock options, the risk-free interest rate for a period that approximates the expected term of our common stock options, and our expected dividend yield. We estimate the fair value of RSUs granted based on the market value of our common stock.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
A description of recently issued accounting pronouncements that may potentially impact our financial position and results of operations is disclosed in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
FY 2023 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000950170-24-021082.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
Overview
We operate a leading online marketplace for insurance shopping, connecting consumers with insurance provider customers, which includes both carriers and agents. Our vision is to become the largest online source of insurance policies by using data, technology and knowledgeable advisors to make insurance simpler, more affordable and personalized. Our results-driven marketplace, powered by our proprietary data and technology platform, is improving the way insurance providers attract and connect with consumers shopping for insurance.
We operate a marketplace to connect insurance providers to a large volume of high-intent, pre-validated consumer referrals that match the insurers’ specific underwriting and profitability requirements. The transparency of our marketplace, as well as the campaign management tools we offer, are designed to make it easy for insurance carriers and third-party agents to evaluate the performance of their marketing spend on our platform and manage their own return on investment. We present consumers with a single starting point for a comprehensive insurance shopping experience where consumers can engage with insurance carriers through multiple channels based on their preferences. Our marketplace enables consumers to choose to visit an insurance provider’s website to purchase a policy or engage with a carrier or agent by phone or submit their data to insurance providers to receive quotes. Our services are free for consumers, and we derive our revenue from consumer inquires sold as referrals to insurance providers and directly from commissions on sales of policies by our DTC insurance agency.
Since 2011, our core mission has been to make finding insurance easy and more personal, saving consumers and insurance providers time and money. We are working to build the largest and most trusted online insurance marketplace in the United States. In pursuing this goal, we have consistently innovated through our disruptive data driven approach. Highlights of our history of innovation include:
•
In 2011, we launched the EverQuote marketplace for auto insurance.
•
In 2013, we launched EverQuote Pro, our provider portal, for carriers.
•
In 2015, we launched EverQuote Pro for agents.
•
In 2016, we added home and life insurance in our marketplace.
•
In 2019, we added health and renters insurance in our marketplace.
•
In 2020, we launched our DTC insurance offerings in our life vertical and in our health vertical via the acquisition of Crosspointe Insurance & Financial Services, LLC, which we later renamed Eversurance.
•
In 2021, we launched our DTC insurance offerings in our auto and home and renters verticals via the acquisition of Policy Fuel LLC and its affiliates, or PolicyFuel.
In June 2023, we committed to exiting our health insurance vertical, an area that would have required significant capital investment and scale to effectively compete amid an increasingly unpredictable regulatory environment, to increase focus on core verticals, and implemented a workforce reduction plan, or the Reduction Plan, to improve operating efficiency. The Reduction Plan included the elimination of 175 employees, or approximately 28%, of our workforce. We expect these reductions to produce cost savings in non-marketing operating expenses of over 15% from periods prior to the Reduction Plan. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred $4.0 million in severance charges in connection with the workforce reduction, consisting of cash expenditures for employee separation costs of $2.7 million, of which $2.1 million were paid by December 31, 2023, and non-cash charges for the modification of certain equity awards of $1.3 million. During the year ended December 31, 2023, we recorded a credit of $0.2 million to restructuring and other charges related to estimated severance payments that were not made.
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On August 1, 2023, we sold all of the issued and outstanding membership interests of our former subsidiary, Eversurance LLC, for cash consideration of $13.2 million to MyPlanAdvocate Insurance Solutions Inc. There were no employees of Eversurance LLC at the time of the sale. The assets sold consisted of commissions receivable of $30.8 million, which were expected to be collected over the next seven years, net intangible assets of $1.0 million and other net assets of $0.4 million, including our Evansville, Indiana office lease. We incurred $0.4 million of transaction costs in connection with the sale. Accordingly, we recognized a loss on sale of $19.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2023. We also recorded an impairment charge on our right-of-use asset for our Cambridge, Massachusetts office lease of $0.4 million during the year ended December 31, 2023 in connection with subleases we entered into with two third parties for a portion of the office space. We refer to the exit of our health insurance vertical and the Reduction Plan as our recent restructuring, which we completed by September 30, 2023.
In the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, our total revenue was $287.9 million, $404.1 million and $418.5 million, respectively, representing year-over-year decreases of 28.8% and 3.4% from 2022 to 2023 and 2021 to 2022, respectively. We had net losses of $51.3 million, $24.4 million and $19.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively, and had $0.5 million, $5.9 million and $14.6 million in adjusted EBITDA for these same periods, respectively. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income (loss) determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future growth depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section titled “Risk Factors.”
Auto insurance industry risk
For the year ended December 31, 2023, we derived 79% of our revenue from auto insurance providers and our financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. The auto insurance industry has experienced deteriorated underwriting performance due to a rise in claims, inflation, and inadequate policy premiums. This deteriorated underwriting performance has caused our insurance carrier customers to reduce spending on new customer acquisition, which has had a negative impact on the pricing and demand for consumer referrals in our marketplace during 2022 and 2023.
Furthermore, total revenue from our two largest insurance carrier customers was 27% and 32% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. In January 2023, we saw one of our major carrier customers return to higher spending patterns, but subsequently reduce customer acquisition spending starting in the second quarter of 2023 and continuing throughout the remainder of 2023 due to higher than expected claims losses. The state of the auto insurance market remains volatile and while we believe we have started to see some improvement in spending patterns, a recovery could be prolonged by further cost inflation, increased claim severity and frequency, or insufficient policy premium increases.
Expanding consumer traffic
Our success depends in part on the growth of our consumer traffic. We have historically increased consumer traffic to our marketplace by expanding existing advertising channels and adding new channels such as by engaging with consumers through our verified partner network. Over the long term, we plan to increase consumer traffic by leveraging the features and growing the data assets of our platform. However, we have decreased advertising spend in response to lower demand for consumer referrals and we have the ability to further decrease advertising spend in the future when the revenue associated with such consumer traffic does not result in incremental profit to our business. We have also increased the number of quote requests acquired from our verified partner network. While we plan to continue to increase the number of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, our profitability will be impacted by our ability to acquire quote requests in significant volume, at prices that are attractive, and that represent high-intent shoppers for which insurance providers will purchase referrals.
Increasing the number of insurance providers and their respective spend in our marketplace
Our success also depends on our ability to retain and grow our insurance provider network. Historically, we have generally expanded both the number of insurance providers and the spend per provider on our platform. Recently, we have experienced a decrease in carrier spend in the automotive insurance vertical as described above.
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Regulation
Our revenue and earnings may fluctuate from time to time as a result of changes to federal, state, and industry-based laws and regulations, or changes to standards concerning the enforcement thereof. Our business could be affected directly because we operate websites, conduct telephonic and email marketing, and collect, store, share, and use consumer information and other data. Our business also could be affected indirectly if our customers were to adjust their operations as a result of regulatory changes and enforcement activity. For example, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently signaled, in public statements and enforcement actions, a new position regarding the consent requirements under the Telemarketing Sales Rule, while the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has proposed changes to the consent rules under the TCPA. Although it is unclear how these changes may ultimately be implemented or interpreted, they could have an impact on the market for insurance quote requests, and may require us and our third-party sources to modify our marketing practices and policies. In addition, a number of states have enacted (and others are considering) broad data privacy laws that could affect our business. Although it remains unclear how these new privacy laws may be modified or interpreted, their effects could have an impact on our business, and may require us to modify our data use practices and policies and incur compliance-related costs and expenses.
Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including GAAP operating results and the key metrics listed below, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections, and make operating and strategic decisions. Some of these metrics are non-financial metrics or are financial metrics that are not defined by GAAP.
Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, restructuring and other charges, acquisition-related costs, one-time severance charges, interest income and income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. We monitor and present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered together with other operating and financial performance measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Also, Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. For further explanation of the uses and limitations of this measure and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, net income (loss), please see “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure”.
Variable Marketing Margin
We define variable marketing margin, or VMM, as revenue, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, less advertising costs (a component of sales and marketing expense, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss). We use VMM to measure the efficiency of individual advertising and consumer acquisition sources and to make trade-off decisions to manage our return on advertising. We do not use VMM as a measure of profitability.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate our revenue primarily from consumer inquiries sold as referrals to insurance provider customers, consisting of carriers and agents, as well as to indirect distributors. To simplify the quoting process for the consumer and improve performance for the provider, we are able to provide consumer-submitted quote request data along with each referral. We recognize revenue from consumer referrals at the time of delivery. We support three secure consumer referral formats:
•
Clicks: An online-to-online referral, with a handoff of the consumer to the provider’s website.
•
Data: An online-to-offline referral, with quote request data transmitted to the provider for follow-up.
•
Calls: An online-to-offline referral for outbound calls and an offline-to-offline referral for inbound calls, with the consumer and provider connected by phone.
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We also generate revenue from commissions paid to us by insurance carriers for the sale of policies in our automotive insurance vertical, and prior to our exit from health, in our health insurance vertical. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation, which we consider to be submission of the policy application to the insurance carrier. We recognize revenue based on our constrained estimate of commission payments we expect to receive over the lifetime of the policies sold, which we refer to as constrained LTVs, of commission payments. Commission revenue represented less than 10% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023.
For the periods presented, our total revenue consisted of revenue generated within our insurance verticals as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Automotive | $ | 227,505 | $ | 324,417 | $ | 330,928 | |||||
| Home and Renters | 40,889 | 31,909 | 37,548 | ||||||||
| Other | 19,527 | 47,801 | 50,039 | ||||||||
| Total Revenue | $ | 287,921 | $ | 404,127 | $ | 418,515 |
We expect an overall increase in revenue in 2024, including in our automotive and home and renters verticals, as we anticipate increased spending from our carrier partners. We expect revenue from our other insurance vertical to further decrease in 2024 as a result of our exit from the health insurance vertical.
Cost and Operating Expenses
Our cost and operating expenses consist of cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative expenses, restructuring and other charges and acquisition-related costs.
We allocate certain overhead expenses, such as rent, utilities, office supplies and depreciation and amortization of general office assets, to cost of revenue and operating expense categories based on headcount. As a result, an overhead expense allocation is reflected in cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses. Personnel-related costs included in cost of revenue and operating expense categories include wages, fringe benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised primarily of the costs of operating our marketplace and delivering consumer referrals to our customers. These costs consist primarily of technology service costs including hosting, software, data services, and third-party call center costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes depreciation and amortization of our platform technology assets and personnel-related costs.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of advertising and marketing expenditures as well as personnel-related costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing, data analytics and consumer acquisition functions and amortization of sales and marketing-related intangible assets. Advertising expenditures consist of variable costs that are related to attracting consumers to our marketplace, generating consumer quote requests, including the cost of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, and promoting our marketplace to carriers and agents. Advertising costs are expensed as incurred. Marketing costs consist primarily of content and creative development, public relations, memberships, and event costs. We expect our sales and marketing expense will increase as we expect increased carrier spend for referrals, which will impact our advertising expenditures, though we expect personnel-related costs to decrease in 2024 from 2023 as a result of the Reduction Plan implemented in June 2023.
Research and Development
Research and development expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs for software development and product management. We have focused our research and development efforts on improving ease of use and functionality of our existing marketplace platform and developing new offerings and internal tools. We primarily expense research and development costs. Direct development costs related to software enhancements that add functionality are capitalized and amortized as a component of cost of revenue. We expect that research and development expense will remain relatively flat in 2024 as compared to 2023.
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General and Administrative
General and administrative expense consists of personnel-related costs and related expenses for executive, finance, legal, human resources, technical support and administrative personnel as well as the costs associated with professional fees for external legal, accounting and other consulting services, insurance premiums and payment processing and billing costs. We expect that general and administrative expense will decrease in 2024 from 2023, partially as a result of the Reduction Plan implemented in June 2023.
Restructuring and Other Charges
Restructuring and other charges includes costs related to the recent restructuring and our exit of the health insurance vertical. We completed this restructuring and exit from health in 2023.
Acquisition-related
Acquisition-related costs include expenses associated with third-party professional services we utilize for the evaluation and execution of acquisitions as well as changes in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our acquisitions of Eversurance and PolicyFuel, which occurred in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) consists of interest income and other income (expense). Interest income consists of interest earned on invested cash balances. Other income (expense) consists of miscellaneous income (expense) unrelated to our core operations.
Income Taxes
Income tax expense is based on our estimate of taxable income, applicable income tax rates, net research and development tax credits, net operating loss carrybacks, changes in valuation allowance estimates and deferred income taxes.
Non-GAAP Financial Measure
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP and to provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted EBITDA is not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.
Adjusted EBITDA. We define adjusted EBITDA as our net income (loss), excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expense; depreciation and amortization expense; restructuring and other charges; acquisition-related costs; one-time severance charges; interest income; and income taxes. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to adjusted EBITDA is net income (loss). We monitor and present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. In particular, we believe that excluding the impact of these expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core operating performance.
We use adjusted EBITDA to evaluate our operating performance and trends and make planning decisions. We believe adjusted EBITDA helps identify underlying trends in our business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of the expenses that we exclude in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects.
Adjusted EBITDA is not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered in isolation of, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are a number of limitations related to the use of adjusted EBITDA rather than net income (loss), which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense as it has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring non-cash expense for our business;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization expense and, although this is a non-cash expense, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes restructuring and other charges, which includes the sale of health assets, that affect cash available to us;
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•
adjusted EBITDA excludes acquisition-related costs that affect cash available to us and the change in fair value of non-cash contingent consideration liabilities;
•
adjusted EBITDA excludes severance charges incurred and paid in the fourth quarter of 2021 related to our reduction in non-marketing operating expenses that affected cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the cash received from interest income on our investments, which affects the cash available to us;
•
adjusted EBITDA does not reflect income taxes that affects cash available to us; and
•
the expenses and other items that we exclude in our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may differ from the expenses and other items, if any, that other companies may exclude from adjusted EBITDA when they report their operating results.
In addition, other companies may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of adjusted EBITDA as a tool for comparison.
The following table reconciles adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (51,287 | ) | $ | (24,416 | ) | $ | (19,434 | ) | |||
| Stock-based compensation | 22,808 | 28,986 | 30,020 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 6,196 | 5,848 | 5,072 | |||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | 23,568 | — | — | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | (150 | ) | (4,135 | ) | 1,065 | |||||||
| Severance under a plan | — | — | 440 | |||||||||
| Interest income | (1,251 | ) | (349 | ) | (37 | ) | ||||||
| Income taxes | 577 | — | (2,510 | ) | ||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 461 | $ | 5,934 | $ | 14,616 |
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Results of Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods shown:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Statement of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||
| Revenue(1) | $ | 287,921 | $ | 404,127 | $ | 418,515 | ||||||
| Cost and operating expenses(2): | ||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | 22,455 | 23,980 | 23,949 | |||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 240,131 | 349,255 | 354,990 | |||||||||
| Research and development | 27,591 | 31,713 | 35,732 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 26,301 | 28,102 | 24,703 | |||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | 23,568 | — | — | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | (150 | ) | (4,135 | ) | 1,065 | |||||||
| Total cost and operating expenses | 339,896 | 428,915 | 440,439 | |||||||||
| Loss from operations | (51,975 | ) | (24,788 | ) | (21,924 | ) | ||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||
| Interest income | 1,251 | 349 | 37 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | 14 | 23 | (57 | ) | ||||||||
| Total other income (expense), net | 1,265 | 372 | (20 | ) | ||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (50,710 | ) | (24,416 | ) | (21,944 | ) | ||||||
| Income tax (expense) benefit | (577 | ) | — | 2,510 | ||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (51,287 | ) | $ | (24,416 | ) | $ | (19,434 | ) | |||
| Other Financial and Operational Data: | ||||||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | $ | 100,282 | $ | 128,258 | $ | 129,553 | ||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(3) | $ | 461 | $ | 5,934 | $ | 14,616 |
(1)
Comprised of revenue from the following distribution channels:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| Direct channels | 81 | % | 86 | % | 90 | % | ||||||
| Indirect channels | 19 | % | 14 | % | 10 | % | ||||||
| 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
(2)
Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 219 | $ | 281 | $ | 363 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 8,667 | 11,018 | 12,405 | ||||||||
| Research and development | 8,053 | 10,328 | 9,551 | ||||||||
| General and administrative | 5,869 | 7,359 | 7,701 | ||||||||
| Restructuring and other charges | 1,288 | — | — | ||||||||
| $ | 24,096 | $ | 28,986 | $ | 30,020 |
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(3) See “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure and a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its comparable GAAP financial measure.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2023 and 2022
Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 287,921 | $ | 404,127 | $ | (116,206 | ) | -28.8 | % |
Revenue decreased by $116.2 million from $404.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 to $287.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The decrease in revenue was due to a decrease of $96.9 million in our automotive insurance vertical and a decrease of $28.3 million in our other insurance verticals, partially offset by an increase in revenue from our home and renters insurance vertical of $9.0 million. The decrease in revenue from our automotive insurance vertical was primarily due to a decrease in carrier spend for referrals of $83.3 million, including a decrease in subsidies from one of our larger carrier customers, and a decrease in commission revenue of $13.6 million. The decrease in revenue from our other insurance verticals was primarily due to a decrease in commission revenue of $18.7 million and a decrease in carrier spend for referrals of $9.6 million, both due primarily to our exit from health insurance.
Cost of Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 22,455 | $ | 23,980 | $ | (1,525 | ) | -6.4 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 7.8 | % | 5.9 | % |
Cost of revenue decreased from $24.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 to $22.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. Cost of revenue decreased primarily due to a decrease in third-party call center costs of $3.1 million as a result of shifting call referrals from third-party call centers to employees and a decrease in calls related to our health insurance vertical. Hosting costs also decreased by $0.9 million. These decreases were partially offset by increased personnel-related costs of $1.4 million due to the shift of call referrals from third-party call centers to employees and an increase in depreciation expense of $1.0 million related primarily to technology assets that will no longer be used.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing expense | $ | 240,131 | $ | 349,255 | $ | (109,124 | ) | -31.2 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 83.4 | % | 86.4 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses decreased by $109.1 million from $349.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 to $240.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The decrease in sales and marketing expense was primarily due to a decrease in advertising costs of $88.2 million due to a decrease in carrier spend. Sales and marketing expenses also decreased due to our exit from the health insurance vertical, including decreases in personnel-related costs and office and occupancy costs of $15.7 million and $1.0 million, respectively, and decreases in depreciation and amortization expense and agent license fees of $0.7 million and $0.6 million, respectively. Technology services also decreased by $1.1 million and agent marketing decreased by $0.5 million due to lower usage and activity.
Research and Development
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Research and development expense | $ | 27,591 | $ | 31,713 | $ | (4,122 | ) | -13.0 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 9.6 | % | 7.8 | % |
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Research and development expenses decreased by $4.1 million from $31.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 to $27.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The decrease in research and development expense was due to a decrease in personnel-related costs.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative expense | $ | 26,301 | $ | 28,102 | $ | (1,801 | ) | -6.4 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 9.1 | % | 7.0 | % |
General and administrative expenses decreased by $1.8 million from $28.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 to $26.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. The decrease in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related costs of $0.9 million and decreases in insurance costs and bad debt expense of $0.5 million each. These decreases were partially offset by a net increase in professional fees of $0.5 million, primarily due to an increase in legal costs.
Restructuring and Other Charges
Restructuring and other charges of $23.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted of costs related to the Reduction Plan implemented in June 2023. Restructuring and other charges primarily included the loss on the sale of health insurance vertical assets of $19.4 million and an asset impairment charge of $0.4 million for the right-of-use asset related to our Cambridge, Massachusetts office lease. Restructuring costs and other charges also included net employee separation charges and non-cash compensation related to the restructuring of $3.8 million.
Acquisition-related Costs
Acquisition-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 were $(0.2) million and $(4.1) million, respectively. We recorded these credits to acquisition-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 for the decreases in fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities. The decreases in fair value were related to our future revenue forecasts and to a lesser extent, changes in market value of our Class A common stock.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) included interest income of $1.3 million and $0.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increase in interest income in 2023 was due to higher interest rates. Other income (expense), net was not significant for either of the years ended December 31, 2023 or 2022.
Income Taxes
Income tax expense of $0.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted of foreign and state income expense. We did not record income tax expense for the year ended December 31, 2022 as we offset taxable income with net operating loss carryforwards. We generated taxable income during the year ended December 31, 2022 related primarily to capitalized research and development costs due to the new requirement to capitalize research and development costs under Section 174 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. We recorded an income tax benefit of $2.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 due to the release of a portion of our valuation allowance as a result of the PolicyFuel acquisition. The net deferred tax liability recorded for the PolicyFuel acquisition primarily relates to the intangible assets recognized in purchase accounting which are non-deductible for tax purposes and result in a deferred tax liability.
Variable Marketing Margin
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 287,921 | $ | 404,127 | $ | (116,206 | ) | -28.8 | % | |||||||
| Less: total advertising expense (a component of sales and marketing expense) | 187,639 | 275,869 | ||||||||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | $ | 100,282 | $ | 128,258 | $ | (27,976 | ) | -21.8 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 34.8 | % | 31.7 | % |
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The decrease in variable marketing margin was due primarily to decreased carrier spend.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021
For a discussion of our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2021, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity are cash and cash equivalents of $38.0 million as of December 31, 2023 and up to $25.0 million of availability under our revolving line of credit pursuant to the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement (defined as the Amended and Restated Loan and Security Agreement, dated as of August 7, 2020 between us and Western Alliance Bank, as Lender, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement dated as of July 15, 2022, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement dated as of August 1, 2023, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement, dated as of on August 7, 2023).
Pursuant to the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, borrowings under the revolving line of credit cannot exceed 85% of eligible accounts receivable balances, bear interest at the greater of 7.0% or the prime rate as published in The Wall Street Journal and mature on July 15, 2025. In an event of default, as defined in the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, and until such event is no longer continuing, the annual interest rate to be charged would be the annual rate otherwise applicable to borrowings under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement plus 5.00%.
Borrowings are collateralized by substantially all of our assets and property. Under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, we have agreed to certain affirmative and negative covenants to which we will remain subject until maturity. The covenants include limitations on our ability to incur additional indebtedness and engage in certain fundamental business transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions of other businesses. In addition, under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement and through the maturity date, we are required to maintain a minimum Adjusted Quick Ratio of 1.10 to 1.00 defined as the ratio of (1) the sum of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents held at the Lender plus (y) net accounts receivable reflected on our balance sheet to (2) current liabilities, including all borrowings outstanding under the 2023 Amended Loan Agreement, but excluding the current portion of deferred revenue (in each case determined in accordance with GAAP). At any time the Adjusted Quick Ratio is less than 1.30 to 1.00 the Lender shall have the ability to use our cash receipts to repay outstanding obligations until such time as the Adjusted Quick Ratio is equal to or greater than 1.30 to 1.00 for two consecutive months. As of December 31, 2023, we were in compliance with these covenants and we had no amounts outstanding under the revolving line of credit.
In addition, we are filing a universal shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the SEC concurrently with the filing of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which when declared effective, will register for sale up to $150.0 million of any combination of our common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, warrants, rights or units from time to time and at prices and on terms that we may determine. The net proceeds of any securities we sell under this registration statement may be used for general corporate purposes, including among other possible uses, the acquisition of companies or businesses, repayment and refinancing of debt, working capital and capital expenditures. At this time we have no plans to sell any such securities under this registration statement
Since our inception, we have incurred operating losses and may continue to incur losses in the foreseeable future. We believe our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months, without considering the borrowing availability under our revolving line of credit. Our future capital requirements may vary materially from those currently planned and will depend on many factors, including our revenue, the timing and extent of spending on business initiatives, purchases of capital equipment to support our growth, sales and marketing activities, impact to our business from our recent restructuring, expansion of our business through acquisitions or our investments in complementary offerings, technologies or businesses, market acceptance of our platform and overall economic conditions. If we do not achieve our revenue goals as planned, we believe that we can reduce our operating costs. If we need additional funds and are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may need to significantly curtail our operations in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations, which could adversely affect our business prospects.
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Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | (2,828 | ) | $ | (15,791 | ) | $ | 7,189 | ||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | 9,354 | (4,290 | ) | (18,817 | ) | |||||||
| Net cash provided by financing activities | 577 | 15,842 | 3,615 | |||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | 18 | (27 | ) | (6 | ) | |||||||
| Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | 7,121 | $ | (4,266 | ) | $ | (8,019 | ) |
Operating activities
Operating activities used $2.8 million and $15.8 million of cash during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Cash used by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2023 resulted from our net loss of $51.3 million and net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $1.7 million, partially offset by net non-cash charges of $50.1 million, which included a loss on sale of health assets of $19.4 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $15.0 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities, partially offset by an $8.2 million decrease in accounts receivable, a $4.2 million decrease in commissions receivable and a $1.0 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets.
Cash used by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2022 resulted from our net loss of $24.4 million and net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $22.8 million, partially offset by net non-cash charges of $31.4 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $24.2 million increase in commissions receivable, a $2.1 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets and a $1.3 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities, partially offset by a $5.4 million decrease in accounts receivable.
Changes in accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other current assets and accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities were generally due to level of activity in our business and timing of customer and vendor invoicing and payments. Collection of commissions receivable depends upon the timing of our receipt of commission payments from insurance carriers. A significant portion of our commissions receivable asset is classified as long term.
Investing activities
Net cash provided by investing activities was $9.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, consisting of cash proceeds from the sale of Eversurance LLC of $13.2 million, partially offset by the acquisition of property and equipment of $3.8 million, which included the capitalization of certain software development costs. Net cash used in investing activities was $4.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022, consisting of cash used to acquire property and equipment, which included the capitalization of software development costs. During each of the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, we capitalized $3.6 million of software development costs.
Financing activities
During the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, net cash provided by financing activities was $0.6 million and $15.8 million, respectively. Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2023 consisted of proceeds received from the exercise of common stock options, partially offset by tax withholding payments relating to net share settlements. Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2022 consisted primarily of $15.0 million of proceeds from the issuance and sale of shares of common stock in a private placement with Recognition Capital, LLC, an entity which is owned and controlled by David Blundin, Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of the Company, and $0.9 million from the exercise of common stock options.
For a discussion of our cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2021, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Cash Flows included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.
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Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our cash flows are dependent on a number of factors in addition to our operational expenditures, including our contractual and other obligations. As a result, our liquidity and capital resources in future periods should be analyzed in conjunction with such factors.
We lease office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts under a non-cancelable operating lease that expires in September 2024. We lease office space in Austin, Texas pursuant to a lease that expires in April 2025. As of December 31, 2023, we were obligated to make total minimum lease payments of $2.2 million under such leases, of which $2.1 million is payable in 2024.
We have outstanding agreements with various vendors for hosting and other technical services. We believe that we will be able to fund these obligations through our existing cash and cash equivalents.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements, appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we believe that the following accounting policies are those most critical to the judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to our insurance provider customers, including insurance carriers, agents and indirect distributors. We also generate revenue from commission fees for the sale of policies, primarily in our automotive insurance vertical, and prior to our exit from health, in our health insurance vertical. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that we determine are within the scope of ASC 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, or ASC 606, we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation.
We only apply the five-step model to contracts when collectibility of the consideration to which we are entitled in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer is determined to be probable. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional. We do not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is that the period between payment by the customer and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the customer will be one year or less.
Referral Revenue
We recognize referral revenue when we satisfy our performance obligations by delivering the referrals to our customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those referrals.
Commission Revenue
Our commission revenue consists of the constrained LTVs of commission payments that we expect to receive in our automotive insurance vertical, and prior to our exit from health, that we expected to receive in our health insurance vertical on the sale of insurance policies to consumers and renewals of such policies. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation. We consider our performance obligation related to commissions for both the initial policy sale and future renewals of the policy to be satisfied upon submission of the policy application. Therefore, a significant portion of the commission revenue we record upon satisfaction of our performance obligation is paid by our insurance provider customer over a multi-year time frame as policyholders renew and pay the insurance provider for their policies. The current portion of commissions receivable consists of estimated commissions on new policies sold and estimated renewal commissions on policies expected to be renewed within one year, while the non-current portion of commissions receivable are commissions for estimated renewals expected to be renewed beyond one year. Commission revenue represented less than 10% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023.
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Commission revenue from auto insurance carriers consists of constrained LTVs of commission payments we expect to receive for selling an insurance policy based on the effective date of the policy. Our estimate of constrained LTVs is based on an analysis of historical commission payment trends for relevant policies to establish an expected lifetime value and incorporates management’s judgment in interpreting those trends to calculate LTVs and to apply constraints to such LTVs. The most significant factor impacting historical trends is average policy duration. We apply a constraint to our estimated LTVs to only recognize the amount of variable consideration that we believe is probable that we will be entitled to receive and will not be subject to a significant revenue reversal in the future. To the extent that commission payment trends change or the underlying factors impacting commission payments change, our estimate of constrained LTVs could be materially impacted. To the extent we make changes to our estimates of constrained LTVs, we recognize any material impact of the change to commission revenue in the reporting period in which the change is made, including revisions of estimated lifetime commissions either below or in excess of previously estimated constrained LTVs recognized as an adjustment to revenue and the related contract asset. We recognize revenue for new policies by applying the latest estimated constrained LTV for that product. We had commissions receivable of $12.0 million as of December 31, 2023, of which $4.3 million was classified as current.
Goodwill and Acquired Intangible Assets
We record goodwill when consideration paid in a business acquisition exceeds the value of the net assets acquired. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable at that time but that are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. Assumptions may be incomplete or inaccurate, and unanticipated events or circumstances may occur, which may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results. During the measurement period, which extends no later than one year from the acquisition date, we may record certain adjustments to the carrying value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the corresponding offset to goodwill. After the measurement period, all adjustments are recorded in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss as operating expenses or income.
Goodwill is not amortized, but rather is tested for impairment annually in the fourth quarter, or more frequently if facts and circumstances warrant a review, such as significant underperformance of the business in relation to expectations, significant negative industry or economic trends and significant changes or planned changes in the use of the assets. We have determined that there is a single reporting unit for the purpose of conducting our goodwill impairment assessment. We assess both the existence of potential impairment and the amount of impairment loss by comparing the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. Intangible assets are recorded at their estimated fair values at the date of acquisition. We amortize acquired intangible assets over their estimated useful lives based on the pattern of consumption of the economic benefits or, if that pattern cannot be readily determined, on a straight-line basis. To date, we have not recorded any impairments of goodwill or acquired intangible assets.
Valuation of Contingent Consideration
In connection with our acquisitions of Eversurance and PolicyFuel we agreed to issue shares of Class A common stock to the former owners upon the achievement of certain revenue targets. Achievement of revenue targets that result in the issuance of a variable number of shares of Class A common stock are accounted for as a liability. We estimated the fair value of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon achievement of the targets as of the acquisition date. We remeasure the fair value of the shares of Class A common stock issuable at each subsequent reporting date until the liability is fully settled. We use Monte Carlo simulation models in our estimates. The estimated fair value of the contingent consideration is based upon available information and certain assumptions, known at the time of our estimates, which management believes are reasonable. Changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to updated assumptions and estimates are recognized as acquisition-related costs.
We used a Monte Carlo simulation model in our estimates of the fair value of the contingent consideration related to the PolicyFuel acquisition that will be settled based on achievement at varying levels of three annual targets. The most significant assumptions and estimates utilized in the model include forecasted revenue (an acquisition specific input) and the market value of our Class A common stock (an observable input). Other assumptions utilized in the model include equity volatility, revenue volatility and discount rate. We issued 62,671 shares of our Class A common stock in December 2022 to settle the first milestone related to the PolicyFuel contingent consideration. The fair value of our contingent consideration liability for the PolicyFuel shares for the second and third milestones was zero as of December 31, 2023.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock options and other stock-based awards granted to employees, nonemployees and directors based on their fair value on the date of the grant. We recognize compensation expense of employee awards, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We apply the straight-line method of expense recognition to all employee awards with only service-based vesting conditions and apply the graded-vesting method to all employee awards with both service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, commencing when achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. Compensation expense for nonemployee awards is recognized in the same manner as if we had paid cash for the goods or services received, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award.
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We estimate the fair value of stock options with service-based vesting or performance-based vesting granted to employees, nonemployees and directors using the Black Scholes option pricing model, which uses as inputs the fair value of our common stock and assumptions we make for the volatility of our common stock, the expected term of our common stock options, the risk-free interest rate for a period that approximates the expected term of our common stock options, and our expected dividend yield. We measure stock options with market-based vesting based on the fair value on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo simulation model. We estimate the fair value of each RSU based on the market value of our common stock.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
A description of recently issued accounting pronouncements that may potentially impact our financial position and results of operations is disclosed in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
FY 2022 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000950170-23-004649.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our actual results could differ materially from the results described in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
Overview
EverQuote makes insurance shopping easy, efficient and personal, saving consumers and insurance providers time and money.
We operate a leading online marketplace for insurance shopping, connecting consumers with insurance providers. Our mission is to empower insurance shoppers to better protect life’s most important assets—their family, health, property, and future. Our vision is to become the largest online source of insurance policies by using data, technology and knowledgeable advisors to make insurance simpler, more affordable and personalized, ultimately reducing cost and risk. Our results-driven marketplace, powered by our proprietary data and technology platform, is reshaping the insurance shopping experience for consumers and improving the way insurance providers attract and connect with consumers shopping for insurance.
Finding the right insurance product is often challenging for consumers, who face limited online options, complex, variable and opaque pricing, and myriad coverage configurations. We present consumers with a single starting point for a comprehensive and cost-effective insurance shopping experience. Our marketplace reduces the time consumers spend searching across multiple sites by delivering broader and more relevant results than consumers may find on their own. In addition to our marketplace, we operate a direct to consumer, or DTC, insurance agency. Our DTC agents bind policies for consumers, further streamlining the consumer shopping experience. Our services are free for consumers, and we derive our revenue from sales of consumer referrals to insurance providers and directly from commissions on sales of policies.
Insurance providers, which we view as including carriers, our own DTC agents, and third-party agents, operate in a highly competitive and regulated industry and typically specialize in pre-determined subsets of consumers. As a result, not every consumer is a good match for every provider, and some providers can struggle to reach the segments that are most desirable for their business models. Traditional offline and online advertising channels reach broad audiences but lack the fine-grained consumer acquisition capabilities needed for optimally matching consumers to specific insurance products. We connect providers to a large volume of high-intent, pre-validated consumer referrals that match the insurers’ specific requirements. The transparency of our marketplace, as well as the campaign management tools we offer, make it easy for insurance carriers and third-party agents to evaluate the performance of their marketing spend on our platform and manage their own return on investment.
Since 2011, our core mission has been to make finding insurance easy and more personal, saving consumers and insurance providers time and money. We are working to build the largest and most trusted online insurance marketplace in the world. In pursuing this goal, we have consistently innovated through our disruptive data driven approach. Highlights of our history of innovation include:
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In 2011, we launched the EverQuote marketplace for auto insurance.
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In 2013, we launched EverQuote Pro, our provider portal, for carriers.
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In 2015, we launched EverQuote Pro for agents.
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In 2016, we added home and life insurance in our marketplace.
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In 2019, we added health and renters insurance in our marketplace.
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In 2020, we launched our DTC insurance offerings in our life vertical and in our health vertical via the acquisition of Crosspointe Insurance & Financial Services, LLC, which we later renamed Eversurance.
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In 2021, we launched our DTC insurance offerings in our auto and home and renters verticals via the acquisition of Policy Fuel LLC and its affiliates, or PolicyFuel.
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In the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, our total revenue was $404.1 million, $418.5 million and $346.9 million, respectively, representing a year-over-year decrease of 3.4% from 2021 to 2022 and a year-over-year increase of 20.6% from 2020 to 2021. We had net losses of $24.4 million, $19.4 million and $11.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively, and had $5.9 million, $14.6 million and $18.4 million in adjusted EBITDA for these same periods, respectively. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income (loss) determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
COVID-19
Uncertainty remains as to the duration and severity of business disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as with respect to the full impact of the pandemic on the global economy and consumer confidence. As a result, we are unable to accurately predict the full impact that COVID-19 will have on our insurance provider customers or our users, or on our operating results, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows. To support the health and well-being of our employees, customers, partners and communities, a majority of our employees continue to work remotely, however our offices are open for use. While disruptions related to COVID-19 have not had a material adverse impact on our financial results through December 31, 2022, such disruptions may impact consumer insurance shopping behavior. We continue to monitor and are managing our operations for the ongoing impact of COVID-19.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future growth depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section titled “Risk Factors.”
Auto insurance industry risk
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from auto insurance providers and our financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. For example, in 2016, the U.S. commercial auto insurance industry experienced its worst underwriting performance in 15 years, with higher loss ratios that were driven by both adverse claim severity and frequency trends. As a result, our auto insurance carrier customers reduced marketing spend and cost per sale targets the following year, ultimately impacting our revenue growth in the auto insurance vertical in 2017. More recently, and specifically starting in the third quarter of 2021, the auto insurance industry has experienced similar challenges, which is impacting our financial performance in the auto insurance vertical. Auto insurance carriers experienced a sudden rise in the severity of claims caused by inflationary increases in the cost to repair and replace vehicles and settle medical and injury claims. The increase in claims severity has reduced underwriting performance for auto insurance carriers, causing them to implement policy premium increases and reduce spending on new customer acquisition. The reduction in new customer acquisition spending by auto insurance carriers has had a negative impact on the pricing and demand for consumer referrals in our marketplace.
The state of the auto insurance market remains dynamic. In August 2022, we began to see the first major carrier return to more normalized historical spending patterns. However, Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Florida in September 2022, put incremental, downward pressure on carrier marketing spend. While we believe we have started to see some improvement in spending patterns, a recovery could be prolonged by further cost inflation, increased claim severity and frequency, or insufficient policy premium increases.
Expanding consumer traffic
Our success depends in part on the growth of our consumer traffic. We have historically increased consumer traffic to our marketplace by expanding existing advertising channels and adding new channels such as by engaging with consumers through our verified partner network. We plan to continue to increase consumer traffic by leveraging the features and growing data assets of our platform. While we plan to increase consumer traffic over the long term, we also have the ability to decrease advertising, if we believe the revenue associated with such consumer traffic does not result in incremental profit to our business. We have also increased the number of quote requests acquired from our verified partner network. While we plan to continue to increase the number of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, our ability to acquire quote requests in significant volume, at prices that are attractive, and that represent high-intent shoppers that insurance providers will purchase referrals for will impact our profitability.
Increasing the number of insurance providers and their respective spend in our marketplace
Our success also depends on our ability to retain and grow our insurance provider network. Historically, we have generally expanded both the number of insurance providers and the spend per provider on our platform.
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Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including GAAP operating results and the key metrics listed below, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections, and make operating and strategic decisions. Some of these metrics are non-financial metrics or are financial metrics that are not defined by GAAP.
Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, acquisition-related costs, one-time severance charges, interest income and the provision for (benefit from) income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. We monitor and present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered together with other operating and financial performance measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Also, Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. For further explanation of the uses and limitations of this measure and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, net income (loss), please see “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure”.
Variable Marketing Margin
We define variable marketing margin, or VMM, as revenue, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, less advertising costs (a component of sales and marketing expense, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss). We use VMM to measure the efficiency of individual advertising and consumer acquisition sources and to make trade-off decisions to manage our return on advertising. We do not use VMM as a measure of profitability.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to insurance provider customers, consisting of carriers and agents, as well as to indirect distributors. To simplify the quoting process for the consumer and improve performance for the provider, we are able to provide consumer-submitted quote request data along with each referral. We recognize revenue from consumer referrals at the time of delivery. We support three secure consumer referral formats:
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Clicks: An online-to-online referral, with a handoff of the consumer to the provider’s website.
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Data: An online-to-offline referral, with quote request data transmitted to the provider for follow-up.
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Calls: An online-to-offline referral for outbound calls and an offline-to-offline referral for inbound calls, with the consumer and provider connected by phone.
We also generate revenue from commissions paid to us by insurance carriers for the sale of policies, primarily in our health and automotive verticals. Commission revenue represented approximately 13% of total revenue in the year ended December 31, 2022, and less than 10% of total revenue in the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation, which we consider to be submission of the policy application to the insurance carrier. We recognize revenue based on our constrained estimate of commission payments we expect to receive over the lifetime of the policies sold, which we refer to as constrained lifetime values, or constrained LTVs, of commission payments.
For the periods presented, our total revenue consisted of revenue generated from our automotive and other insurance verticals, which includes home and renters, life and health insurance verticals, as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Automotive | $ | 324,417 | $ | 330,928 | $ | 283,236 | |||||
| Other | 79,710 | 87,587 | 63,699 | ||||||||
| Total Revenue | $ | 404,127 | $ | 418,515 | $ | 346,935 |
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We expect an overall increase in revenue in 2023 as we anticipate increased spending from our carrier partners. We expect revenue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and, in particular, for our commission revenue to be positively impacted during the open and annual enrollment periods in our health vertical.
Cost and Operating Expenses
Our cost and operating expenses consist of cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development, general and administrative expenses and acquisition-related costs.
We allocate certain overhead expenses, such as rent, utilities, office supplies and depreciation and amortization of general office assets, to cost of revenue and operating expense categories based on headcount. As a result, an overhead expense allocation is reflected in cost of revenue and each operating expense category. Personnel-related costs included in cost of revenue and each operating expense category include wages, fringe benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised primarily of the costs of operating our marketplace and delivering consumer referrals to our customers. These costs consist primarily of technology service costs including hosting, software, data services, and third-party call center costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes depreciation and amortization of our platform technology assets and personnel-related costs.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expense consists primarily of advertising and marketing expenditures as well as personnel-related costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing, data analytics and consumer acquisition functions and amortization of sales and marketing-related intangible assets. Advertising expenditures consist of variable costs that are related to attracting consumers to our marketplace, generating consumer quote requests, including the cost of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, and promoting our marketplace to carriers and agents. Advertising costs are expensed as incurred. Marketing costs consist primarily of content and creative development, public relations, memberships, and event costs. In order to continue to grow our business and brand awareness, we expect that we will continue to commit substantial resources to our sales and marketing efforts. We expect our sales and marketing expense will increase in the near term. In the longer term, we expect sales and marketing expense to decrease as a percentage of revenue due to efficiencies of scale and improvements in our marketplace technology.
Research and Development
Research and development expense consists primarily of personnel-related costs for software development and product management. We have focused our research and development efforts on improving ease of use and functionality of our existing marketplace platform and developing new offerings and internal tools. We primarily expense research and development costs. Direct development costs related to software enhancements that add functionality are capitalized and amortized as a component of cost of revenue. We expect that research and development expense will increase as we continue to enhance and expand our platform technology.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expense consists of personnel-related costs and related expenses for executive, finance, legal, human resources, technical support and administrative personnel as well as the costs associated with professional fees for external legal, accounting and other consulting services, insurance premiums and payment processing and billing costs. We expect that general and administrative expense will increase in the near term due primarily to increases in personnel-related costs.
Acquisition-related
Acquisition-related costs include expenses associated with third-party professional services we utilize for the evaluation and execution of acquisitions as well as changes in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our Eversurance and PolicyFuel acquisitions.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) consists of interest income and other income (expense). Interest income consists of interest earned on invested cash balances. Other income (expense) consists of miscellaneous income (expense) unrelated to our core operations.
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Income Taxes
Income tax expense is based on our estimate of taxable income, applicable income tax rates, net research and development tax credits, net operating loss carrybacks, changes in valuation allowance estimates and deferred income taxes.
Non-GAAP Financial Measure
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP and to provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted EBITDA is not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.
Adjusted EBITDA. We define adjusted EBITDA as our net income (loss), excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expense; depreciation and amortization expense; acquisition-related costs; one-time severance charges; interest income; and our provision for (benefit from) income taxes. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to adjusted EBITDA is net income (loss). We monitor and present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. In particular, we believe that excluding the impact of these expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core operating performance.
We use adjusted EBITDA to evaluate our operating performance and trends and make planning decisions. We believe adjusted EBITDA helps identify underlying trends in our business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of the expenses that we exclude in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects.
Adjusted EBITDA is not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered in isolation of, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are a number of limitations related to the use of adjusted EBITDA rather than net income (loss), which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
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adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense as it has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring non-cash expense for our business;
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adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization expense and, although this is a non-cash expense, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future;
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adjusted EBITDA excludes acquisition-related costs that affect cash available to us and the change in fair value of non-cash contingent consideration;
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adjusted EBITDA excludes severance charges incurred and paid in the fourth quarter of 2021 related to our reduction in non-marketing operating expenses that affected cash available to us;
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adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the cash received from interest income on our investments, which affects the cash available to us;
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adjusted EBITDA does not reflect income tax expense (benefit) that affects cash available to us; and
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the expenses and other items that we exclude in our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may differ from the expenses and other items, if any, that other companies may exclude from adjusted EBITDA when they report their operating results.
In addition, other companies may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of adjusted EBITDA as a tool for comparison.
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The following table reconciles adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (24,416 | ) | $ | (19,434 | ) | $ | (11,202 | ) | |||
| Stock-based compensation | 28,986 | 30,020 | 24,179 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 5,848 | 5,072 | 3,350 | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | (4,135 | ) | 1,065 | 2,258 | ||||||||
| Severance under a plan | — | 440 | — | |||||||||
| Interest income | (349 | ) | (37 | ) | (189 | ) | ||||||
| Benefit from income taxes | — | (2,510 | ) | — | ||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 5,934 | $ | 14,616 | $ | 18,396 |
Results of Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods shown:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Statement of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||
| Revenue(1) | $ | 404,127 | $ | 418,515 | $ | 346,935 | ||||||
| Cost and operating expenses(2): | ||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | 23,980 | 23,949 | 21,373 | |||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 349,255 | 354,990 | 284,880 | |||||||||
| Research and development | 31,713 | 35,732 | 29,662 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 28,102 | 24,703 | 20,444 | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | (4,135 | ) | 1,065 | 2,258 | ||||||||
| Total cost and operating expenses | 428,915 | 440,439 | 358,617 | |||||||||
| Loss from operations | (24,788 | ) | (21,924 | ) | (11,682 | ) | ||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||
| Interest income | 349 | 37 | 189 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | 23 | (57 | ) | 291 | ||||||||
| Total other income (expense), net | 372 | (20 | ) | 480 | ||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (24,416 | ) | (21,944 | ) | (11,202 | ) | ||||||
| Benefit from income taxes | — | 2,510 | — | |||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (24,416 | ) | $ | (19,434 | ) | $ | (11,202 | ) | |||
| Other Financial and Operational Data: | ||||||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | $ | 128,258 | $ | 129,553 | $ | 108,642 | ||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(3) | $ | 5,934 | $ | 14,616 | $ | 18,396 |
(1)
Comprised of revenue from the following distribution channels:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||
| Direct channels | 86 | % | 90 | % | 92 | % | ||||||
| Indirect channels | 14 | % | 10 | % | 8 | % | ||||||
| 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
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(2)
Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 281 | $ | 363 | $ | 361 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 11,018 | 12,405 | 10,246 | ||||||||
| Research and development | 10,328 | 9,551 | 7,751 | ||||||||
| General and administrative | 7,359 | 7,701 | 5,821 | ||||||||
| $ | 28,986 | $ | 30,020 | $ | 24,179 |
(3) See “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure and a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its comparable GAAP financial measure.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2022 and 2021
Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 404,127 | $ | 418,515 | $ | (14,388 | ) | -3.4 | % |
Revenue decreased by $14.4 million from $418.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 to $404.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease in revenue was due to decreases of $7.9 million and $6.5 million in our other insurance and automotive verticals, respectively. The decrease in revenue from our other insurance verticals was due to a decrease of $16.9 million in carrier spend for referrals, partially offset by an increase in commission revenue of $9.1 million. The decrease in revenue from our automotive vertical was primarily due to a decrease of $21.1 million in carrier spend for referrals, partially offset by an increase in commission revenue of $14.6 million.
Cost of Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 23,980 | $ | 23,949 | $ | 31 | 0.1 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 5.9 | % | 5.7 | % |
Cost of revenue increased slightly from $23.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 to $24.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. Cost of revenue increased primarily due to increased personnel-related costs of $1.3 million as a result of shifting call referrals from third-party call centers to employees and to increased amortization of intangible assets of $0.4 million, partially offset by decreases in technology service costs of $2.0 million, primarily due to decreased hosting costs, third-party call center costs and other technology service costs.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing expense | $ | 349,255 | $ | 354,990 | $ | (5,735 | ) | -1.6 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 86.4 | % | 84.8 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses decreased by $5.7 million from $355.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 to $349.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease in sales and marketing expense was primarily due to a decrease in advertising expenditures of $13.1 million, partially offset by an increase in personnel-related costs of $5.5 million. The decrease in advertising expenditures primarily related to decreased carrier spend for referrals, which impacted our advertising expenditures. The
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increase in personnel-related costs was primarily due to an increase in headcount, a significant portion of which was in DTC agency. Agent license fees and office and occupancy costs related to DTC also increased by $0.8 million and $0.5 million, respectively.
Research and Development
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Research and development expense | $ | 31,713 | $ | 35,732 | $ | (4,019 | ) | -11.2 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 7.8 | % | 8.5 | % |
Research and development expenses decreased by $4.0 million from $35.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 to $31.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The decrease in research and development expense was primarily due to a decrease in personnel-related costs of $4.1 million and a decrease in consulting costs of $0.4 million, partially offset by an increase in technology service costs of $0.8 million.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative expense | $ | 28,102 | $ | 24,703 | $ | 3,399 | 13.8 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 7.0 | % | 5.9 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $3.4 million from $24.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 to $28.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $1.2 million, an increase in consulting fees of $0.9 million and an increase in bad debt expense of $0.7 million. Credit card fees also increased by $0.3 million.
Acquisition-related Costs
Acquisition-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 were $(4.1) million and $1.1 million, respectively. We recorded a credit to acquisition-related costs for the year ended December 31, 2022 of $4.1 million related to the decrease in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities. The decrease was related to our future revenue forecasts and to a lesser extent, changes in market value of our Class A common stock. Acquisition-related costs for the year ended December 31, 2021 included costs for third-party professional services we utilized for the evaluation and execution of our completed acquisitions of $0.9 million and changes in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our acquisitions.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) included interest income of $0.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2022 as compared to less than $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2021, due to higher interest rates. Other income (expense), net was not significant for either of the years ended December 31, 2022 or 2021.
Income Taxes
We generated taxable income during the year ended December 31, 2022 related primarily to capitalized research and development costs due to the new requirement to capitalize research and development costs under Section 174 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. We offset our taxable income with net operating loss carryforwards and therefore did not record income tax expense for the year ended December 31, 2022. We recorded an income tax benefit of $2.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 due to the release of a portion of our valuation allowance as a result of the PolicyFuel acquisition. The net deferred tax liability recorded for the PolicyFuel acquisition primarily relates to the intangible assets recognized in purchase accounting which are non-deductible for tax purposes and result in a deferred tax liability.
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Variable Marketing Margin
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 404,127 | $ | 418,515 | $ | (14,388 | ) | -3.4 | % | |||||||
| Less: total advertising expense (a component of sales and marketing expense) | 275,869 | 288,962 | ||||||||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | $ | 128,258 | $ | 129,553 | $ | (1,295 | ) | -1.0 | % | |||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 31.7 | % | 31.0 | % |
The decrease in variable marketing margin was due primarily to decreases in referral revenue, partially offset by increases in commission revenue.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020
For a discussion of our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Our principal sources of liquidity are cash and cash equivalents of $30.8 million as of December 31, 2022 and availability of up to $45.0 million under our revolving line of credit and term loan, each of which were amended in July 2022. On July 15, 2022, we entered into the Loan and Security Modification Agreement, which amended our existing Loan and Security Agreement, or the 2020 Loan Agreement, with Western Alliance Bank, or the Lender, to extend the maturity date of the revolving line of credit to July 15, 2025, to increase the revolving line of credit available thereunder from $25.0 million to $35.0 million, and to provide us with access to a term loan of up to $10.0 million. We refer to the 2020 Loan Agreement, as amended by the Loan and Security Modification Agreement, as the Amended Loan Agreement.
Pursuant to the Amended Loan Agreement, borrowings under the revolving line of credit cannot exceed 85% of eligible accounts receivable balances, bear interest at the greater of 4.25% or the prime rate as published in the Wall Street Journal and mature on July 15, 2025. The term loan may be drawn through December 31, 2023 and borrowings bear interest at 0.25% plus the greater of 4.25% or the prime rate as published in the Wall Street Journal. Borrowings under the term loan of the Amended Loan Agreement are repayable in monthly interest-only payments through December 31, 2023. Commencing on January 1, 2024, the term loan is payable in 42 equal monthly installments of the then outstanding principal and accrued interest through June 2027. We may prepay all, but not less than all, of any outstanding principal with respect to advances made under the term loan provided that such outstanding principal is paid in full along with any accrued but unpaid interest to date plus any fees that become payable under the Amended Loan Agreement. In an event of default, as defined in the Amended Loan Agreement, and until such event is no longer continuing, the annual interest rate to be charged would be the annual rate otherwise applicable to borrowings under the Amended Loan Agreement plus 5.00%.
Borrowings are collateralized by substantially all of our assets and property. Under the Amended Loan Agreement, we agreed to affirmative and negative covenants to which we will remain subject until maturity. The covenants include limitations on our ability to incur additional indebtedness and engage in certain fundamental business transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions of other businesses. In addition, under the Amended Loan Agreement and through December 31, 2023, we are required to maintain a minimum asset coverage ratio of 1.5 to 1 calculated as the sum of unrestricted cash held at the Lender and eligible accounts receivable divided by all borrowings outstanding under the Amended Loan Agreement. Commencing December 31, 2023, we are required to maintain, and test on a quarterly basis, a fixed charge coverage ratio and a leverage ratio. The fixed charge coverage ratio is measured as the ratio of (i) our trailing twelve-month adjusted “EBITDA” (as defined in the Amended Loan Agreement) less capital expenditures, less cash taxes, to (ii) our trailing twelve-month interest and principal payments to the Lender, of at least 1.25 to 1.00. The leverage ratio is measured as the ratio of (i) our outstanding obligations owing to the Lender, to (ii) our trailing twelve-month adjusted EBITDA (as defined in the Amended Loan Agreement), of not more than 3.00 to 1.00. As of December 31, 2022, we were in compliance with these covenants.
Since our inception, we have incurred operating losses and may continue to incur losses in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that our operating expenses and capital expenditures will increase in the near term as we hire additional employees and improve our technology and infrastructure capabilities. Additionally, a significant portion of the commission revenue we record will be collected over a multi-year time frame as policyholders renew their policies, and we are paid commissions on those renewals. As of December 31, 2022, $33.4 million of our $46.9 million commissions receivable contract asset was classified as long-term. We believe our
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existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months, without considering the borrowing availability under our credit facility. Our future capital requirements may vary materially from those currently planned and will depend on many factors, including our rate of revenue growth, the timing and extent of spending on business initiatives, purchases of capital equipment to support our growth, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, expansion of our business through acquisitions or our investments in complementary offerings, technologies or businesses, market acceptance of our platform and overall economic conditions. If we do not achieve our revenue goals as planned, we believe that we can reduce our operating costs. If we need additional funds and are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may need to significantly curtail our operations in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations, which could adversely affect our business prospects.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by (used in) operating activities | $ | (15,791 | ) | $ | 7,189 | $ | 10,668 | |||||
| Net cash used in investing activities | (4,290 | ) | (18,817 | ) | (18,752 | ) | ||||||
| Net cash provided by financing activities | 15,842 | 3,615 | 4,907 | |||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | (27 | ) | (6 | ) | (7 | ) | ||||||
| Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | (4,266 | ) | $ | (8,019 | ) | $ | (3,184 | ) |
Net cash provided by operating activities
Operating activities used $15.8 million of cash during the year ended December 31, 2022 and provided $7.2 million of cash during the year ended December 31, 2021. Cash used by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2022 resulted from our net loss of $24.4 million and net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $22.8 million, partially offset by net non-cash charges of $31.4 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $24.2 million increase in commissions receivable, a $2.1 million increase in prepaid expenses and other current assets and a $1.3 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities, partially offset by a $5.4 million decrease in accounts receivable.
Cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily resulted from the offset of net non-cash charges of $32.8 million to our net loss of $19.4 million, partially offset by net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $6.1 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $16.9 million increase in commissions receivable and a $1.3 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities, partially offset by a $10.5 million decrease in accounts receivable and a $1.8 million decrease in prepaid expenses and other current assets.
Changes in accounts receivable, accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities were generally due to growth in our business, timing of customer and vendor invoicing and payments. Collection of commissions receivable depends upon the timing of our receipt of commission payments from insurance carriers. A significant portion of our commissions receivable asset is classified as long term.
Net cash used in investing activities
Net cash used in investing activities was $4.3 million and $18.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. Cash used in investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 consisted of cash used to acquire property and equipment, which included the capitalization of software development costs. During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, we capitalized $3.6 million and $2.3 million, respectively, of software development costs. Net cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021 included cash paid of $16.0 million to purchase PolicyFuel.
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Net cash provided by financing activities
During the years ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, net cash provided by financing activities was $15.8 million and $3.6 million, respectively. Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2022 consisted primarily of $15.0 million of proceeds from the issuance and sale of shares of common stock in a private placement with Recognition Capital, LLC, an entity which is owned and controlled by David Blundin, Chairman of the Board of Directors and co-founder of the Company, and $0.9 million from the exercise of common stock options. Net cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2021 consisted of proceeds of $3.6 million received from the exercise of common stock options.
For a discussion of our cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2020, see Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Cash Flows included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our cash flows are dependent on a number of factors in addition to our operational expenditures, including our contractual and other obligations. As a result, our liquidity and capital resources in future periods should be analyzed in conjunction with such factors.
We lease office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts under a non-cancelable operating lease that expires in September 2024. We lease office space at various other locations under non-cancelable operating leases that expire at varying dates through 2030. As of December 31, 2022, we were obligated to make total minimum lease payments of $6.8 million under such leases, of which $3.2 million is payable in 2023.
We have outstanding agreements with various vendors for hosting and other technical services. We believe that we will be able to fund these obligations through our existing cash and cash equivalents.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements, appearing in Part II of Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we believe that the following accounting policies are those most critical to the judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Goodwill and Acquired Intangible Assets
We record goodwill when consideration paid in a business acquisition exceeds the value of the net assets acquired. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable at that time but that are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. Assumptions may be incomplete or inaccurate, and unanticipated events or circumstances may occur, which may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results. During the measurement period, which extends no later than one year from the acquisition date, we may record certain adjustments to the carrying value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the corresponding offset to goodwill. After the measurement period, all adjustments are recorded in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss as operating expenses or income.
Goodwill is not amortized, but rather is tested for impairment annually, or more frequently if facts and circumstances warrant a review, such as significant underperformance of the business in relation to expectations, significant negative industry or economic trends and significant changes or planned changes in the use of the assets. We have determined that there is a single reporting unit for the purpose of conducting our goodwill impairment assessment. We assess both the existence of potential impairment and the amount of impairment loss by comparing the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. Intangible assets are recorded at their estimated fair values at the date of acquisition. We amortize acquired intangible assets over their estimated useful lives based on the pattern of consumption of the economic benefits or, if that pattern cannot be readily determined, on a straight-line basis. To date, we have not recorded any impairments of goodwill or acquired intangible assets.
Valuation of Contingent Consideration
In connection with our acquisitions of Eversurance and PolicyFuel we agreed to issue shares of Class A common stock to the former owners upon the achievement of certain revenue targets. Achievement of revenue targets that will result in the issuance of a variable number of shares of Class A common stock are accounted for as a liability. We estimated the fair value of the shares of Class
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A common stock issuable upon achievement of the targets as of the acquisition date. We remeasure the fair value of the shares of Class A common stock issuable at each subsequent reporting date until the liability is fully settled. We use Monte Carlo simulation models in our estimates. The estimated fair value of the contingent consideration is based upon available information and certain assumptions, known at the time of our estimates, which management believes are reasonable. Changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to updated assumptions and estimates are recognized as acquisition-related costs.
We used a Monte Carlo simulation model in our estimates of the fair value of the contingent consideration related to the PolicyFuel acquisition that will be settled based on achievement at varying levels of three annual targets. The most significant assumptions and estimates utilized in the model include forecasted revenue (an acquisition specific input) and the market value of our Class A common stock (an observable input). Other assumptions utilized in the model include equity volatility, revenue volatility and discount rate. In December 2022, we issued 58,754 shares of Class A common stock to the former owners of Eversurance upon achievement of the third and final target of the contingent consideration arrangement. We issued 62,671 shares of our Class A common stock in December 2022 to settle the first milestone related to the PolicyFuel contingent consideration. The fair value of our contingent consideration liability for the PolicyFuel shares for the second and third milestones was $0.2 million as of December 31, 2022. A hypothetical change of 10% in our estimate of the number of shares of our Class A common stock to be released upon achievement of the revenue targets or the market value of Class A common stock, would not be material.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to our insurance provider customers, including insurance carriers, agents and indirect distributors. We also generate revenue from commission fees for the sale of policies, primarily in our health and automotive verticals. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that we determine are within the scope of the revenue standard, we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation.
We only apply the five-step model to contracts when collectability of the consideration to which we are entitled in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer is determined to be probable. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional. We do not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is that the period between payment by the customer and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the customer will be one year or less.
Referral Revenue
We recognize referral revenue when we satisfy our performance obligations by delivering the referrals to our customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those referrals.
Commission Revenue
Commission revenue consists of the estimated constrained lifetime values, or constrained LTVs, of commission payments we expect to receive from health insurance carriers and auto insurance carriers on the sale of insurance policies to consumers and renewals of such policies. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation. We consider our performance obligation related to commissions for both the initial policy sale and future renewals of the policy to be satisfied upon submission of the policy application. Therefore, a significant portion of the commission revenue we record upon satisfaction of our performance obligation is paid by our insurance provider customer over a multi-year time frame as policyholders renew and pay the insurance provider for their policies. The current portion of commissions receivable consists of estimated commissions on new policies sold and estimated renewal commissions on policies expected to be renewed within one year, while the non-current portion of commissions receivable are commissions for estimated renewals expected to be renewed beyond one year. Commission revenue represented approximately 13% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2022 and less than 10% of total revenue for each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020.
We estimate commission revenue for each health insurance product by using a portfolio approach to a group of policies by product type and the application submission date of the relevant policy, which are referred to as “cohorts.” Our estimate of constrained LTVs is based on an analysis of historical commission payment trends for relevant policies to establish an expected lifetime value and incorporates our judgment in interpreting those trends to calculate LTVs and to apply constraints to such LTVs. Significant factors impacting historical trends include carrier mix, average policy duration and conversion rates of paying policies.
Commission revenue from auto insurance carriers consists of constrained LTVs of commission payments we expect to receive for selling an insurance policy based on the effective date of the policy. Our estimate of constrained LTVs is based on an analysis of historical commission payment trends for relevant policies to establish an expected lifetime value and incorporates our judgment in
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interpreting those trends to calculate LTVs and to apply constraints to such LTVs. The most significant factor impacting historical trends is average policy duration.
We apply a constraint to estimated LTVs to only recognize the amount of variable consideration that we believe is probable that we will be entitled to receive and will not be subject to a significant revenue reversal in the future.
To the extent that commission payment trends change or the underlying factors impacting commission payments change, our estimates of constrained LTVs could be materially impacted. To the extent we make changes to our estimates of constrained LTVs, we recognize any material impact of the change to commission revenue in the reporting period in which the change is made, including revisions of estimated lifetime commissions either below or in excess of previously estimated constrained LTVs recognized as an adjustment to revenue and the related contract asset. We recognize revenue for new policies by applying the latest estimated constrained LTV for that product.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock options and other stock-based awards granted to employees, non-employees and directors based on their fair value on the date of the grant. We recognize compensation expense of employee awards, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We apply the straight-line method of expense recognition to all employee awards with only service-based vesting conditions and apply the graded-vesting method to all employee awards with both service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, commencing when achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. Compensation expense for nonemployee awards is recognized in the same manner as if we had paid cash for the goods or services received.
We estimate the fair value of stock options with service-based vesting or performance-based vesting granted to employees, non-employees and directors using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, which uses as inputs the fair value of our common stock and assumptions we make for the volatility of our common stock, the expected term of our common stock options, the risk-free interest rate for a period that approximates the expected term of our common stock options, and our expected dividend yield. We measure stock options with market-based vesting based on the fair value on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo simulation model. We estimate the fair value of each restricted stock unit, or RSU, based on the market value of our common stock.
The fair value of performance-based RSUs that are liability classified will be recorded as compensation expense based on the fair value of the number of shares issued at vesting. Prior to vesting, compensation expense is recognized over the period during which services are rendered, based on the performance conditions deemed to be probable of achievement. At the end of each financial reporting period prior to the vesting date, the fair value of these awards is remeasured using the then-current fair value of our Class A common stock. For a description of liability-classified performance-based RSUs refer to Note 10 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
A description of recently issued accounting pronouncements that may potentially impact our financial position and results of operations is disclosed in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
FY 2021 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0001193125-22-054390.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form
10-K.
Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis or set forth elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form
10-K,
including information with respect to our plans and strategy for our business, includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, including those factors set forth in the ‘‘Risk Factors’’ section of this Annual Report on Form
10-K,
our actual results could differ materially from the results described in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained in the following discussion and analysis.
Overview
EverQuote makes insurance shopping easy, efficient and personal, saving consumers and insurance providers time and money.
We operate a leading online marketplace for insurance shopping, connecting consumers with insurance providers. Our mission is to empower insurance shoppers to better protect life’s most important assets—their family, property, and future. Our vision is to become the largest online source of insurance policies by using data and technology to make insurance simpler, more affordable and personalized, ultimately reducing cost and risk. Our results-driven marketplace, powered by our proprietary data and technology platform, is reshaping the insurance shopping experience for consumers and improving the way insurance providers attract and connect with consumers shopping for insurance.
Finding the right insurance product is often challenging for consumers, who face limited online options, complex, variable and opaque pricing, and myriad coverage configurations. We present consumers with a single starting point for a comprehensive and cost-effective insurance shopping experience. Our marketplace reduces the time consumers spend searching across multiple sites by delivering broader and more relevant results than consumers may find on their own. Our direct to consumer, or DTC, agents bind policies for consumers, further streamlining the consumer shopping experience. Our service is free for consumers, and we derive our revenue from sales of consumer referrals to insurance providers and directly from commissions on sales of policies.
Insurance providers, which we view as including carriers, our own DTC agents, and third-party agents, operate in a highly competitive and regulated industry and typically specialize in
pre-determined
subsets of consumers. As a result, not every consumer is a good match for every provider, and some providers can struggle to reach the segments that are most desirable for their business models. Traditional offline and online advertising channels reach broad audiences but lack the fine-grained consumer acquisition capabilities needed for optimally matching consumers to specific insurance products. We connect providers to a large volume of high-intent,
pre-validated
consumer referrals that match the insurers’ specific requirements. The transparency of our marketplace, as well as the campaign management tools we offer, make it easy for insurance carriers and third-party agents to evaluate the performance of their marketing spend on our platform and manage their own return on investment.
Since 2011, our core mission has been to make finding insurance easy and more personal, saving consumers and insurance providers time and money. We are working to build the largest and most trusted online insurance marketplace in the world. In pursuing this goal, we have consistently innovated through our disruptive data driven approach. Highlights of our history of innovation include:
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2011, we launched the EverQuote marketplace for auto insurance. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2013, we launched EverQuote Pro, our provider portal, for carriers. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2015, we launched EverQuote Pro for agents. |
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| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2016, we added home and life insurance in our marketplace. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2018, we exceeded 46 million cumulative quote requests since launch of our marketplace. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2019, we added health and renters insurance in our marketplace. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In 2020, we launched our DTC insurance offerings in our life vertical and in our health vertical via the acquisition of Crosspointe Insurance & Financial Services, LLC, or Crosspointe, which we later renamed Eversurance. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | In August 2021, we launched our DTC insurance offerings in our auto and home verticals via the acquisition of Policy Fuel LLC and its affiliates, or PolicyFuel. |
In the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, our total revenue was $418.5 million, $346.9 million and $248.8 million, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 20.6% and 39.4%, respectively. We had net losses of $19.4 million, $11.2 million and $7.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and had $14.6 million, $18.4 million and $8.3 million in adjusted EBITDA for these same periods, respectively. See the section titled
“—Non-GAAP Financial
Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA and its reconciliation to net income (loss) determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP.
COVID-19
The
COVID-19
pandemic has had a significant adverse impact on global commercial activity and has created significant volatility in financial markets. Many governmental authorities have implemented travel bans and restrictions, quarantines,
shelter-in-place
orders, business limitations and shutdowns and other measures to attempt to contain the spread of the virus. Government recommendations and requirements are continuing to change and there remains significant uncertainty as to the breadth and duration of business disruptions related to
COVID-19,
as well as its impact on the global economy and consumer confidence. While we are unable to accurately predict the full impact that
COVID-19
will have on our results from operations, financial condition, liquidity and cash flows due to these uncertainties, our compliance with measures to contain the spread of the virus has impacted our
day-to-day
operations and could disrupt our business and operations, as well as that of our customers and consumer traffic to our marketplace for an indefinite period of time. For example, we believe that immediately after
shelter-in-place
orders went into effect consumers performed fewer searches for insurance online. To support the health and well-being of our employees, customers, partners and communities, a majority of our employees continue to work remotely, however our offices are open for use. While such disruptions have not had a material adverse impact on our financial results through December 31, 2021, such disruptions may impact consumer insurance shopping behavior. We continue to monitor and are managing our operations for the ongoing impact of
COVID-19.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future growth depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section titled “Risk Factors.”
Auto insurance industry risk
We derive a significant portion of our revenue from auto insurance providers and our financial results depend on the performance of the auto insurance industry. For example, in 2016, the U.S. commercial auto insurance industry experienced its worst underwriting performance in 15 years, with higher loss ratios that were driven by both adverse claim severity and frequency trends. As a result, our auto insurance carrier customers reduced marketing spend and cost per sale targets the following year, ultimately impacting our revenue growth in the auto insurance vertical in 2017. More recently, and specifically starting in the third quarter of 2021, the auto
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insurance industry has experienced similar challenges, which is impacting our revenue growth in the auto insurance vertical. We believe this trend will continue into 2022.
Expanding consumer traffic
Our success depends in part on the growth of our consumer traffic, as measured by quote requests. We have historically increased consumer traffic to our marketplace by expanding existing advertising channels and adding new channels such as by engaging with consumers through our verified partner network. We plan to continue to increase consumer traffic by leveraging the features and growing data assets of our platform. While we plan to increase consumer traffic over the long term, we also have the ability to decrease advertising, which would likely result in a decrease in quote requests from consumers targeted by such advertising, if we believe the revenue associated with such consumer traffic does not result in incremental profit to our business. We have also increased the number of quote requests acquired from our verified partner network. While we plan to continue to increase the number of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, our ability to acquire quote requests in significant volume, at prices that are attractive, and that represent high-intent shoppers that insurance providers will purchase referrals for will impact our profitability.
Increasing the number of insurance providers and their respective spend in our marketplace
Our success also depends on our ability to retain and grow our insurance provider network. We have expanded both the number of insurance providers and the spend per provider on our platform. While not a factor in our historical increases in revenue per quote request, we believe we have an opportunity to increase the number of referrals per quote request while increasing the bind rate per quote request, which would allow us to increase our revenue at low incremental cost.
Revenue per quote request
We seek to increase our revenue per quote request by attaining higher insurance provider bids and by increasing the number of referrals per quote request. Insurance provider bids are influenced by competition in our marketplace auctions, the performance of our consumer referrals for insurance providers relative to other consumer acquisition channels, as well as by market conditions, insurance provider budgets and insurance providers’ new customer acquisition targets. Increases in revenue per quote request allow us to increase advertising and consumer traffic to our marketplace while maintaining or increasing variable marketing margin. We believe revenue per quote request will decrease in the near term as a result of reduced marketing spend from our auto insurance carrier customers.
Cost per quote request
We seek to efficiently acquire consumers by increasing the effectiveness of our consumer advertising and insurance marketplace. Cost per quote request is influenced by the cost and mix of advertising and the conversion rate of marketplace visitors who request an insurance quote. While we seek to minimize cost per quote request, we may incur increased cost per quote request in order to achieve profitability at relative volumes of quote requests and revenue per quote request. We believe cost per quote request will decrease in the near term as a result of reduced marketing spend by the auto insurance industry.
Key Business Metrics
We regularly review a number of metrics, including GAAP operating results and the key metrics listed below, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections, and make operating and strategic decisions. Some of these metrics are
non-financial
metrics or are financial metrics that are not defined by GAAP.
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Adjusted EBITDA
We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude: stock-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization expense, acquisition-related costs, legal settlement expense,
one-time
severance charges, interest income and the provision for (benefit from) income taxes. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure that we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. We monitor and present Adjusted EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered in isolation from, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA should be considered together with other operating and financial performance measures presented in accordance with GAAP. Also, Adjusted EBITDA may not necessarily be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. For further explanation of the uses and limitations of this measure and a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure, net income (loss), please see “—Non GAAP Financial Measure”.
Variable Marketing Margin
We define variable marketing margin, or VMM, as revenue, as reported in our consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, less advertising costs (a component of sales and marketing expense, as reported in our statements of operations and comprehensive loss). We use VMM to measure the efficiency of individual advertising and consumer acquisition sources and to make
trade-off
decisions to manage our return on advertising. We do not use VMM as a measure of profitability.
Quote Requests
Quote requests are consumer-initiated requests for an insurance quote that result from a website form, telephones calls with a consumer, or other interactions we have with consumers through third-party websites that result in a revenue generating transaction.
Key Components of Our Results of Operations
Revenue
We generate our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to insurance provider customers, consisting of carriers and agents, as well as to indirect distributors. To simplify the quoting process for the consumer and improve performance for the provider, we are able to provide consumer-submitted quote request data along with each referral. We recognize revenue from consumer referrals at the time of delivery. We support three secure consumer referral formats:
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | Clicks: An online-to-online referral, with a handoff of the consumer to the provider’s website. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | Data: An online-to-offline referral, with quote request data transmitted to the provider for follow-up. |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | Calls: An online-to-offline referral for outbound calls and an offline-to-offline referral for inbound calls, with the consumer and provider connected by phone. |
We also generate less than 10% of our revenue from commission fees for the sale of policies, primarily in our health and automotive verticals. We recognize revenue based on our constrained estimate of commission payments we expect to receive over the lifetime of the policies sold, which we refer to as constrained lifetime values, or constrained LTVs, of commission payments. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation, which we consider to be submission of the policy application.
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For the periods presented, our total revenue consisted of revenue generated from our automotive and other insurance verticals, which includes home and renters, life and health insurance verticals, as follows:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Automotive | $ | 330,928 | $ | 283,236 | $ | 212,300 | |||||
| Other | 87,587 | 63,699 | 36,511 | ||||||||
| Total Revenue | $ | 418,515 | $ | 346,935 | $ | 248,811 |
We expect a modest overall increase in revenue in 2022 as we anticipate increases in commission revenue to be mostly offset by decreases in referral revenue in our automotive vertical as a result of challenges in the automotive insurance industry described above. We expect revenue to fluctuate from quarter to quarter and, in particular, for our commission revenue to be impacted by the open enrollment period and annual enrollment period in our health vertical.
Cost and Operating Expenses
Our cost and operating expenses consist of cost of revenue, sales and marketing, research and development, and general and administrative expenses.
We allocate certain overhead expenses, such as rent, utilities, office supplies and depreciation and amortization of general office assets, to cost of revenue and operating expense categories based on headcount. As a result, an overhead expense allocation is reflected in cost of revenue and each operating expense category. Personnel-related costs included in cost of revenue and each operating expense category include wages, fringe benefit costs and stock-based compensation expense.
Cost of Revenue
Cost of revenue is comprised primarily of the costs of operating our marketplace and delivering consumer referrals to our customers. These costs consist primarily of technology service costs including hosting, software, data services, and third-party call center costs. In addition, cost of revenue includes depreciation and amortization of our platform technology assets and personnel-related costs.
Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing expenses consist primarily of advertising and marketing expenditures as well as personnel-related costs for employees engaged in sales, marketing, data analytics and consumer acquisition functions and amortization of sales and marketing-related intangible assets. Advertising expenditures consist of variable costs that are related to attracting consumers to our marketplace, generating consumer quote requests, including the cost of quote requests we acquire from our verified partner network, and promoting our marketplace to carriers and agents. Advertising costs are expensed as incurred. Marketing costs consist primarily of content and creative development, public relations, memberships, and event costs. In order to continue to grow our business and brand awareness, we expect that we will continue to commit substantial resources to our sales and marketing efforts. We expect our sales and marketing expense will increase in the near term, both as a percentage of revenue and in absolute dollars, especially as we continue to expand our DTC agency. In the longer term, we expect sales and marketing expense to decrease as a percentage of revenue due to efficiencies of scale and improvements in our marketplace technology.
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Research and Development
Research and development expenses consist primarily of personnel-related costs for software development and product management. We have focused our research and development efforts on improving ease of use and functionality of our existing marketplace platform and developing new offerings and internal tools. We primarily expense research and development costs. Direct development costs related to software enhancements that add functionality are capitalized and amortized as a component of cost of revenue. We expect that research and development expenses will increase as we continue to enhance and expand our platform technology.
General and Administrative
General and administrative expenses consist of personnel-related costs and related expenses for executive, finance, legal, human resources, technical support and administrative personnel as well as the costs associated with professional fees for external legal, accounting and other consulting services, insurance premiums and payment processing and billing costs. We expect general and administrative expenses to increase as we continue to incur the costs of compliance associated with being a publicly traded company, including legal, audit, insurance and consulting fees.
Acquisition-related
Acquisition-related costs include expenses associated with third-party professional services we utilize for the evaluation and execution of acquisitions as well as changes in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our Eversurance and PolicyFuel acquisitions.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense) consists of interest income and other income (expense). Interest income consists of interest earned on invested cash balances. Other income (expense) consists of miscellaneous income (expense) unrelated to our core operations.
Income Taxes
We have not recorded income tax benefits for the net losses we have incurred in the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 or for our research and development tax credits generated, as we believe, based upon the weight of available evidence, that it is more likely than not that all of our net operating loss carryforwards and tax credits will not be realized. As of December 31, 2021, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards of $104.1 million, which may be available to offset future taxable income, of which $9.0 million of the total net operating loss carryforwards expire at various dates beginning in 2029, while the remaining $95.1 million do not expire but are limited in their usage to an annual deduction equal to 80% of annual taxable income. As of December 31, 2021, we had state net operating loss carryforwards of $87.5 million, which may be available to offset future taxable income and expire at various dates beginning in 2027. As of December 31, 2021, we also had federal and state research and development tax credit carryforwards of $5.1 million and $3.1 million, respectively, which may be available to reduce future tax liabilities and expire at various dates beginning in 2030 and 2029, respectively. During the year ended December 31, 2021, we released $2.5 million of our valuation allowance related to the net deferred tax liability recorded as a result of the PolicyFuel acquisition. We maintain a valuation allowance on our overall net deferred tax asset as it is deemed more likely than not the net deferred tax asset will not be realized.
Non-GAAP Financial
Measure
To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP and to provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we present in this Annual Report on
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Form 10-K
adjusted EBITDA as a
non-GAAP financial
measure. Adjusted EBITDA is not based on any standardized methodology prescribed by GAAP and is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies.
Adjusted EBITDA
. We define adjusted EBITDA as our net income (loss), excluding the impact of stock-based compensation expense; depreciation and amortization expense; acquisition-related costs; legal settlement expense;
one-time
severance charges; interest income; and our provision for (benefit from) income taxes. The most directly comparable GAAP measure to adjusted EBITDA is net income (loss). We monitor and present in this Annual Report on
Form 10-K adjusted
EBITDA because it is a key measure used by our management and board of directors to understand and evaluate our operating performance, to establish budgets and to develop operational goals for managing our business. In particular, we believe that excluding the impact of these expenses in calculating adjusted EBITDA can provide a useful measure
for period-to-period comparisons
of our core operating performance.
We use adjusted EBITDA to evaluate our operating performance and trends and make planning decisions. We believe adjusted EBITDA helps identify underlying trends in our business that could otherwise be masked by the effect of the expenses that we exclude in the calculation of adjusted EBITDA. Accordingly, we believe that adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, enhancing the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects.
Adjusted EBITDA is not prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered in isolation of, or as an alternative to, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. There are a number of limitations related to the use of adjusted EBITDA rather than net income (loss), which is the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of these limitations are:
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense as it has recently been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring non-cash expense for our business; |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization expense and, although this is a non-cash expense, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future; |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA excludes acquisition-related costs that affect cash available to us and the change in fair value of non-cash contingent consideration; |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA excludes legal settlement expense that affected cash available to us; |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA excludes severance charges incurred and paid in the fourth quarter of 2021 related to our reduction in non-marketing operating expenses that affected cash available to us; |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA does not reflect the cash received from interest income on our investments, which affects the cash available to us; |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | adjusted EBITDA does not reflect income tax expense (benefit) that affects cash available to us; and |
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| • | the expenses and other items that we exclude in our calculation of adjusted EBITDA may differ from the expenses and other items, if any, that other companies may exclude from adjusted EBITDA when they report their operating results. |
In addition, other companies may use other measures to evaluate their performance, all of which could reduce the usefulness of adjusted EBITDA as a tool for comparison.
The following table reconciles adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
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Reconciliation of Net Loss to Adjusted EBITDA:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (19,434 | ) | $ | (11,202 | ) | $ | (7,117 | ) | |||
| Stock-based compensation | 30,020 | 24,179 | 12,721 | |||||||||
| Depreciation and amortization | 5,072 | 3,350 | 2,186 | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | 1,065 | 2,258 | — | |||||||||
| Legal settlement | — | — | 1,227 | |||||||||
| Severance under a plan | 440 | — | — | |||||||||
| Interest income | (37 | ) | (189 | ) | (669 | ) | ||||||
| Benefit from income taxes | (2,510 | ) | — | — | ||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 14,616 | $ | 18,396 | $ | 8,348 |
Results of Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods shown:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Statement of Operations Data: | ||||||||||||
| Revenue(1) | $ | 418,515 | $ | 346,935 | $ | 248,811 | ||||||
| Cost and operating expenses(2): | ||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | 23,949 | 21,373 | 15,903 | |||||||||
| Sales and marketing | 354,990 | 284,880 | 202,689 | |||||||||
| Research and development | 35,732 | 29,662 | 20,214 | |||||||||
| General and administrative | 24,703 | 20,444 | 16,827 | |||||||||
| Acquisition-related costs | 1,065 | 2,258 | — | |||||||||
| Legal settlement | — | — | 1,227 | |||||||||
| Total cost and operating expenses | 440,439 | 358,617 | 256,860 | |||||||||
| Loss from operations | (21,924 | ) | (11,682 | ) | (8,049 | ) | ||||||
| Other income (expense): | ||||||||||||
| Interest income | 37 | 189 | 669 | |||||||||
| Other income (expense), net | (57 | ) | 291 | 263 | ||||||||
| Total other income (expense), net | (20 | ) | 480 | 932 | ||||||||
| Loss before income taxes | (21,944 | ) | (11,202 | ) | (7,117 | ) | ||||||
| Benefit from income taxes | 2,510 | — | — | |||||||||
| Net loss | $ | (19,434 | ) | $ | (11,202 | ) | $ | (7,117 | ) | |||
| Other Financial and Operational Data: | ||||||||||||
| Quote requests | 30,270 | 27,013 | 20,011 | |||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | $ | 129,553 | $ | 108,642 | $ | 73,316 | ||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(3) | $ | 14,616 | $ | 18,396 | $ | 8,348 |
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| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| (1) | Comprised of revenue from the following distribution channels: |
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||||||
| Direct channels | 90 | % | 92 | % | 94 | % | ||||||
| Indirect channels | 10 | % | 8 | % | 6 | % | ||||||
| 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| (2) | Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows: |
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||||||
| (in thousands) | |||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 363 | $ | 361 | $ | 193 | |||||
| Sales and marketing | 12,405 | 10,246 | 3,805 | ||||||||
| Research and development | 9,551 | 7,751 | 3,967 | ||||||||
| General and administrative | 7,701 | 5,821 | 4,756 | ||||||||
| $ | 30,020 | $ | 24,179 | $ | 12,721 |
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
| (3) | See “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for information regarding our use of adjusted EBITDA as a non-GAAP financial measure and a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its comparable GAAP financial measure. |
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2021 and 2020
Revenue:
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 418,515 | $ | 346,935 | $ | 71,580 | 20.6 | % |
Revenue increased by $71.6 million from $346.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $418.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase in revenue was due to increases of $47.7 million and $23.9 million in revenue from our automotive and other insurance marketplace verticals, respectively. The increase in revenue from our automotive vertical was primarily due to an increase in the volume of quote requests resulting from increased advertising to attract consumers and to an increase in commission revenue of $4.7 million. The increase in revenue from our other marketplace verticals was primarily due to an increase of $14.9 million in commission revenue, primarily in our health vertical, and an increase in revenue per quote request as a result of increased demand for consumer referrals by our insurance providers.
Cost of Revenue
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Cost of revenue | $ | 23,949 | $ | 21,373 | $ | 2,576 | 12.1 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 5.7 | % | 6.2 | % |
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Cost of revenue increased by $2.6 million from $21.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $23.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. Cost of revenue increased due primarily to increased third-party call center costs of $2.5 million, which were primarily related to increased volume of call referrals. Amortization of capitalized software costs increased by $0.4 million.
Sales and Marketing
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Sales and marketing expense | $ | 354,990 | $ | 284,880 | $ | 70,110 | 24.6 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 84.8 | % | 82.1 | % |
Sales and marketing expenses increased by $70.1 million from $284.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $355.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase in sales and marketing expense was primarily due to an increase in advertising expenditures of $50.7 million and an increase in personnel-related costs of $16.2 million. The increase in personnel-related costs was primarily due to an increase in headcount, a significant portion of which was in DTC agency. Personnel-related costs for the year ended December 31, 2021 included severance costs of $0.4 million. Personnel-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 included stock-based compensation expense of $12.4 million and $10.2 million, respectively.
Research and Development
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Research and development expense | $ | 35,732 | $ | 29,662 | $ | 6,070 | 20.5 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 8.5 | % | 8.5 | % |
Research and development expenses increased by $6.1 million from $29.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $35.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase in research and development expense was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $4.7 million as a result of our continued hiring of research and development employees and a shift towards hiring more senior personnel, to further develop and enhance our marketplace websites and technology. Personnel-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 included stock-based compensation expense of $9.6 million and $7.8 million, respectively. Technical service costs also increased by $1.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2020.
General and Administrative
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| General and administrative expense | $ | 24,703 | $ | 20,444 | $ | 4,259 | 20.8 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 5.9 | % | 5.9 | % |
General and administrative expenses increased by $4.3 million from $20.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $24.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021. The increase in general and administrative expenses was primarily due to an increase in personnel-related costs of $2.9 million and increases in accounting fees and insurance costs of $0.5 million each. Personnel-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 included stock-based compensation expense of $7.7 million and $5.8 million, respectively.
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Acquisition-related Costs
Acquisition-related costs for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 were $1.1 million and $2.3 million, respectively, and included costs for third-party professional services we utilized for the evaluation and execution of our completed acquisitions of $0.9 million and $0.5 million, respectively. Acquisition-related costs also included the change in the fair value of our contingent consideration liabilities recorded as the result of our acquisitions, which were comprised of expenses of $0.2 million and $1.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Other Income (Expense)
Other income (expense), net was not significant for the year ended December 31, 2021. Other income (expense), net included sublease income of $0.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. The sublease ended in 2020.
Benefit from Income Taxes
We recorded an income tax benefit of $2.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 due to the release of a portion of our valuation allowance as a result of the PolicyFuel acquisition. The net deferred tax liability recorded for PolicyFuel primarily relates to the intangible assets recognized in purchase accounting which are
non-deductible
for tax purposes and result in a deferred tax liability. The net deferred tax liability is a source of income to support the recognition of a portion of our existing deferred tax assets. Therefore, we recorded a tax benefit for the release of a portion of our valuation allowance related to the net deferred tax liability recorded in purchase accounting. We maintain a valuation allowance on our overall net deferred tax asset as we deem it more likely than not that the net deferred tax asset will not be realized.
Quote Requests
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (in thousands except percentages) | ||||||||||||||||
| Quote requests | 30,270 | 27,013 | 3,257 | 12.1 | % |
Quote requests increased by 3.3 million for 2021 as compared to 2020 due to increased spending on advertising.
Variable Marketing Margin
| Year Ended December 31, | Change | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | Amount | % | |||||||||||||
| (dollars in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||
| Revenue | $ | 418,515 | $ | 346,935 | $ | 71,580 | 20.6 | % | ||||||||
| Less: total advertising expense (a component of sales and marketing expense) | 288,962 | 238,293 | ||||||||||||||
| Variable marketing margin | $ | 129,553 | $ | 108,642 | $ | 20,911 | 19.2 | % | ||||||||
| Percentage of revenue | 31.0 | % | 31.3 | % |
The increase in variable marketing margin was due primarily to increased quote requests and growth in our commissions revenue.
Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019
For a discussion of our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2020 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2019,
see
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
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Results of Operations—Results of Operations—Comparison of the Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 included in our Annual Report on Form
10-K
for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
At December 31, 2021, our principal sources of liquidity were cash and cash equivalents of $34.9 million and availability of $25.0 million under our revolving line of credit. In February 2022, we completed a private placement of shares of Class A common stock resulting in proceeds to us of $15.0 million.
Borrowings under our revolving line of credit are collateralized by substantially all of our assets and property. Additionally, we are subject under our revolving line of credit to affirmative and negative covenants to which we will remain subject until maturity. These covenants include limitations on our ability to incur additional indebtedness and engage in certain fundamental business transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions of other businesses. As of December 31, 2021, we were in compliance with these covenants. In addition, we are required to maintain a minimum asset coverage ratio of 1.5 to 1 calculated as the sum of unrestricted cash and qualified accounts receivable divided by borrowings outstanding under the revolving line of credit. Events of default under our revolving line of credit include failure to make payments when due, insolvency events, failure to comply with covenants and material adverse events with respect to us. In the event of a default, the lender may declare all borrowings immediately due and payable.
Since our inception, we have incurred operating losses and may continue to incur losses in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that our operating expenses and capital expenditures will increase substantially in the near term as we continue to expand our DTC agency, hire additional employees and improve our technology and infrastructure capabilities. Additionally, a significant portion of the commission revenue we record will be collected over a multi-year time frame as policyholders renew their policies, and we are paid commissions on those renewals. As of December 31, 2021, $13.4 million of our $22.7 million commissions receivable contract asset was classified as long term. We believe our existing cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 12 months, without considering the borrowing availability under our revolving line of credit. Our future capital requirements may vary materially from those currently planned and will depend on many factors, including our rate of revenue growth, the timing and extent of spending on business initiatives, purchases of capital equipment to support our growth, the expansion of sales and marketing activities, expansion of our business through acquisitions or our investments in complementary offerings, technologies or businesses, market acceptance of our platform and overall economic conditions. If we do not achieve our revenue goals as planned, we believe that we can reduce our operating costs. If we need additional funds and are unable to obtain funding on a timely basis, we may need to significantly curtail our operations in an effort to provide sufficient funds to continue our operations, which could adversely affect our business prospects.
Cash Flows
The following table shows a summary of our cash flows:
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||||||
| (in thousands) | ||||||||||||
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 7,189 | $ | 10,668 | $ | 4,413 | ||||||
| Net cash used in investing activities | (18,817 | ) | (18,752 | ) | (2,975 | ) | ||||||
| Net cash provided by financing activities | 3,615 | 4,907 | 2,982 | |||||||||
| Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | (6 | ) | (7 | ) | — | |||||||
| Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash | $ | (8,019 | ) | $ | (3,184 | ) | $ | 4,420 |
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Net cash provided by operating activities
Operating activities provided $7.2 million and $10.7 million of cash during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Cash provided by operating activities in the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily resulted from the offset of net
non-cash
charges of $32.8 million to our net loss of $19.4 million, partially offset by net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $6.1 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $10.9 million and $3.6 million increase in other assets and prepaid expenses and other current assets, respectively, and a $1.3 million decrease in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities. These amounts were partially offset by a $10.5 million decrease in accounts receivable. Cash provided by operating activities in 2020 primarily resulted from the offset of net
non-cash
charges of $29.4 million to our net loss of $11.2 million and net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities of $7.5 million. Net cash used by changes in our operating assets and liabilities consisted primarily of a $14.0 million increase in accounts receivable, partially offset by an aggregate $5.3 million increase in accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities and a $0.8 million increase in other long-term liabilities.
Changes in accounts receivable, accounts payable and accrued expenses and other current liabilities were generally due to growth in our business, timing of customer and vendor invoicing and payments. The change in other long-term liabilities in 2020 was primarily due to the deferred payment of employer tax remittances. Collection of commissions receivable, which are included in prepaid expenses and other current assets and other assets depends upon the timing of our receipt of commission payments from insurance carriers. A significant portion of our commissions receivable asset is classified as long term.
Net cash used in investing activities
Net cash used in investing activities was $18.8 million for each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. Net cash used in investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 included cash paid of $16.0 million and $14.9 million to purchase PolicyFuel and Eversurance, respectively. Cash used in investing activities for the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 also consisted of cash used to acquire property and equipment, which included the capitalization of software development costs. During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, we capitalized $2.3 million and $3.0 million, respectively, of software development costs.
Net cash provided by financing activities
During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020, net cash provided by financing activities was $3.6 million and $4.9 million, respectively, and consisted of proceeds received from the exercise of common stock options.
For a discussion of our cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2019,
see
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Cash Flows included in our Annual Report on Form
10-K
for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
Contractual Obligations and Commitments
Our cash flows are dependent on a number of factors in addition to our operational expenditures, including our contractual and other obligations. As a result, our liquidity and capital resources in future periods should be analyzed in conjunction with such factors.
We lease office space in Cambridge, Massachusetts under a
non-cancelable
operating lease that expires in September 2024. We lease office space at various other locations under
non-cancelable
operating leases that expire at varying dates through 2030. As of December 31, 2021, we were obligated to make total minimum lease payments of $8.9 million under such leases, of which $3.0 million is payable in 2022.
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We have outstanding agreements with various vendors for hosting and other technical services. We believe that we will be able to fund these obligations through our existing cash and cash equivalents.
Critical Accounting Policies and Significant Judgments and Estimates
Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, costs and expenses, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities in our consolidated financial statements. We base our estimates on historical experience, known trends and events, and various other factors that we believe are reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. We evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or conditions.
While our significant accounting policies are described in more detail in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements, appearing in Part II of Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form
10-K,
we believe that the following accounting policies are those most critical to the judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.
Goodwill and Acquired Intangible Assets
We record goodwill when consideration paid in a business acquisition exceeds the value of the net assets acquired. Our estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable at that time but that are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. Assumptions may be incomplete or inaccurate, and unanticipated events or circumstances may occur, which may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results. During the measurement period, which extends no later than one year from the acquisition date, we may record certain adjustments to the carrying value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed with the corresponding offset to goodwill. After the measurement period, all adjustments are recorded in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss as operating expenses or income. Our preliminary estimate of the fair value of specifically identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed as of the date of acquisition of PolicyFuel is subject to change upon finalizing our valuation analysis. We expect to finalize our fair value estimates in the first half of 2022.
Goodwill is not amortized, but rather is tested for impairment annually, or more frequently if facts and circumstances warrant a review, such as significant underperformance of the business in relation to expectations, significant negative industry or economic trends and significant changes or planned changes in the use of the assets. We have determined that there is a single reporting unit for the purpose of conducting our goodwill impairment assessment. We assess both the existence of potential impairment and the amount of impairment loss by comparing the fair value of the reporting unit with its carrying amount, including goodwill. Intangible assets are recorded at their estimated fair values at the date of acquisition. We amortize acquired intangible assets over their estimated useful lives based on the pattern of consumption of the economic benefits or, if that pattern cannot be readily determined, on a straight-line basis. To date, we have not recorded any impairments of goodwill or acquired intangible assets.
Valuation of Contingent Consideration
In connection with our acquisitions of Eversurance and PolicyFuel we agreed to issue shares of Class A common stock to the former owners upon the achievement of certain revenue targets. Achievement of revenue targets that will result in the issuance of a variable number of shares of Class A common stock are accounted for as a liability. We estimated the fair value of the shares of Class A common stock issuable upon achievement of the targets as of the acquisition date. We remeasure the fair value of the shares of Class A common stock issuable at each subsequent reporting date until the liability is fully settled. We use Monte Carlo simulation models in our estimates. The estimated fair value of the contingent consideration is based upon available information and
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certain assumptions, known at the time of our estimates, which management believes are reasonable. Changes in the fair value of contingent consideration related to updated assumptions and estimates are recognized as acquisition-related costs.
We estimate the fair value of the maximum 58,754 shares of Class A common stock issuable as contingent consideration upon achievement of certain Eversurance revenue targets in 2023 using probability of achievement of the revenue target (acquisition specific input) and the market value of our Class A common stock (observable input). The fair value of our contingent consideration liability for the Eversurance shares was $0.9 million and $2.2 million as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The decrease in fair value of the contingent consideration liability for the year ended December 31, 2021 was due to the decrease in the market value of our Class A common stock during the year. A hypothetical change in the market value of our Class A common stock of 10% would change the fair value of our estimated liability as of December 31, 2021 by $0.1 million.
We used a Monte Carlo simulation model in our estimates of the fair value of the contingent consideration related to the PolicyFuel acquisition that will be settled over the next three years. The most significant assumptions and estimates utilized in the model include forecasted revenue (an acquisition specific input) and the market value of our Class A common stock (an observable input). Other assumptions utilized in the model include equity volatility, revenue volatility and discount rate. The fair value of our contingent consideration liability for the PolicyFuel shares was $3.8 million as of the date of acquisition and $5.3 million as of December 31, 2021. The increase in the fair value of the contingent consideration liability for the PolicyFuel shares was primarily due to a change in estimate of forecasted revenue, partially offset by the decrease in the market value of our Class A common stock during the period. A hypothetical change of 10% in our estimate of the number of shares of our Class A common stock to be released upon achievement of the revenue targets, assuming no change to the market value of Class A common stock, would change the fair value of our estimated liability as of December 31, 2021 by $0.4 million. A hypothetical change of 10% in the market value of our Class A common stock, assuming no change to the estimated number of shares to be released upon achievement of the revenue targets, would change the fair value of our estimated liability as of December 31, 2021 by $0.3 million.
Revenue Recognition
We derive our revenue primarily by selling consumer referrals to our insurance provider customers, including insurance carriers, agents and indirect distributors. We also generate less than 10% of our revenue from commission fees for the sale of policies, primarily in our health and automotive verticals. To determine revenue recognition for arrangements that we determine are within the scope of the revenue standard, we perform the following five steps: (i) identify the contract(s) with a customer; (ii) identify the performance obligations in the contract; (iii) determine the transaction price; (iv) allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract; and (v) recognize revenue when (or as) we satisfy a performance obligation.
We only apply the five-step model to contracts when collectability of the consideration to which we are entitled in exchange for the goods or services we transfer to the customer is determined to be probable. Amounts are recorded as accounts receivable when our right to consideration is unconditional. We do not assess whether a contract has a significant financing component if the expectation at contract inception is that the period between payment by the customer and the transfer of the promised goods or services to the customer will be one year or less.
Referral Revenue
We recognize referral revenue when we satisfy our performance obligations by delivering the referrals to our customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which we expect to be entitled in exchange for those referrals.
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Commission Revenue
Our commission revenue is primarily comprised of commissions from health insurance carriers and, to a lesser extent, auto insurance carriers. Commission revenue is comprised of the estimated constrained lifetime values, or the constrained LTVs, of commission payments we expect to receive for selling an insurance policy. Commission revenue is recognized upon satisfaction of our performance obligation. We consider our performance obligation to be satisfied upon submission of the policy application. Commission revenue represents less than 10% of total revenue in each of the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019.
We estimate commission revenue for each health insurance product by using a portfolio approach to a group of policies by product type and the application submission date of the relevant policy, which are referred to as “cohorts.” Our estimate of constrained LTVs is based on an analysis of historical commission payment trends for relevant policies to establish an expected lifetime value and incorporates management’s judgment in interpreting those trends to calculate LTVs and to apply constraints to such LTVs. Significant factors impacting historical trends include carrier mix, average policy duration and conversion rates of paying policies.
Commission revenue from auto insurance carriers is comprised of constrained LTVs of commission payments we expect to receive for selling an insurance policy based on the effective date of the policy. Our estimate of constrained LTVs is based on an analysis of historical commission payment trends for relevant policies to establish an expected lifetime value and incorporates management’s judgment in interpreting those trends to calculate LTVs and to apply constraints to such LTVs. The most significant factor impacting historical trends is average policy duration.
We apply a constraint to our estimated LTVs to only recognize the amount of variable consideration that we believe is probable that we will be entitled to receive and that will not be subject to a significant revenue reversal in the future.
To the extent that commission payment trends change or the underlying factors impacting commission payments change, our estimate of constrained LTVs could be materially impacted. To the extent we make changes to our estimates of constrained LTVs, we recognize any material impact of the change to commission revenue in the reporting period in which the change is made, including revisions of estimated lifetime commissions either below or in excess of previously estimated constrained LTVs recognized as an adjustment to revenue and the related contract asset. We have not recorded material adjustments to revenue or commissions receivable resulting from changes to estimated LTVs. We recognize revenue for new policies by applying the latest estimated constrained LTV for that product.
Stock-Based Compensation
We measure stock options and other stock-based awards granted to employees,
non-employees
and directors based on their fair value on the date of the grant. We recognize compensation expense of employee awards, net of estimated forfeitures, over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting period of the respective award. We apply the straight-line method of expense recognition to all employee awards with only service-based vesting conditions and apply the graded-vesting method to all employee awards with both service-based and performance-based vesting conditions, commencing when achievement of the performance condition becomes probable. Compensation expense for nonemployee awards is recognized in the same manner as if we had paid cash for the goods or services received.
We estimate the fair value of stock options with service-based vesting or performance-based vesting granted to employees,
non-employees
and directors using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, which uses as inputs the fair value of our common stock and assumptions we make for the volatility of our common stock, the expected term of our common stock options, the risk-free interest rate for a period that approximates the expected term of our common stock options, and our expected dividend yield. We measure stock options with
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market-based
vesting based on the fair value on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo simulation model. We estimate the fair value of each restricted stock unit, or RSU, based on the market value of our common stock.
The fair value of performance-based RSUs that are liability classified will be recorded as compensation expense based on the fair value of the number of shares issued at vesting. Prior to vesting, compensation expense is recognized over the period during which services are rendered, based on the performance conditions deemed to be probable of achievement. At the end of each financial reporting period prior to the vesting date, the fair value of these awards is remeasured using the then-current fair value of our Class A common stock. For a description of liability-classified performance-based RSUs refer to Note 10 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements
A description of recently issued accounting pronouncements that may potentially impact our financial position and results of operations is disclosed in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements appearing in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form
10-K.