Porch Group Announces Four Seasoned Industry Leaders Strengthen the Organization

Business Wire

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Porch Group, Inc. (“Porch” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: PRCH), a new kind of homeowners insurance company, today announced the addition of four seasoned insurance industry leaders to its team to strengthen the organization across strategy, sales, reinsurance, underwriting and risk management, as it enters a new phase of expected growth.

Meet the New Hires

Eric Lemieur (Head of Insurance Sales & Distribution): Eric is a sales, strategy, and operations executive with deep expertise in both exclusive and independent agent distribution channels. His experience will be instrumental in driving the high-performing sales team and strengthening third-party agency relationships as Porch focuses on premium growth and distribution. Previously, Eric held sales leadership roles at Farmers Insurance and Foremost.

Chad Mirock (Senior Director, Insurance Product & Strategy): Chad is a seasoned insurance executive specializing in product management, underwriting, and pricing strategies, with a strong track record in transformation and strategic leadership. His passion for innovation, customer experience enhancement, and industry advancement will be crucial in increasing momentum for the new Porch Insurance product. Previously, Chad held product management leadership positions at Country Financial, The Hartford, and Travelers.

Andrea Ferrari (Director, Underwriting): Andrea is a customer-focused and analytical underwriting executive with over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, specializing in wildfire risk underwriting, catastrophe risk modeling, and loss mitigation. Andrea will be key to optimizing profitability and leading the underwriting team as we grow premiums while maintaining our focus on risk management. Previously, Andrea led underwriting at Kin and Hippo.

Emmanuel Bellegarde (Head of Reinsurance): Emmanuel is a risk management professional with a demonstrated history of success in the reinsurance industry. His expertise will be pivotal in driving the reinsurance strategy, structuring placements, and securing optimal coverage with third-party reinsurance providers. Previously, Emmanuel has led North America Casualty Facultative reinsurance at McGill and Partners, and held reinsurance leadership roles at Aon Benfield, with additional insurance experience at Willis Towers Watson.

A New Kind of Homeowners Insurance Company

After a chapter of strategic focus on profitability, Porch now enters a new chapter centered on growth and margin expansion. In Insurance, Porch is driving revenue growth through a strategic focus on:

Scaling insurance premiums in response to the rapidly expanding homeowners insurance market, which is expected to grow significantly in the coming years
Continued focus on homebuyers and low-risk homes
Leveraging its unique property data, to sustain underwriting advantages

“The addition of these leaders comes at a pivotal time for Porch,” said Matt Ehrlichman, Porch Group Chief Executive Officer. “We had a strong finish to 2024, delivering $42 million in Adjusted EBITDA and $30 million Net Income in the fourth quarter. Looking toward 2025, we have the Porch Insurance Reciprocal Exchange well-positioned to scale premium and as it does so, our Insurance Services business will benefit with strong and growing profitability.”

About Porch Group

Porch Group, Inc., ("Porch") is a new kind of homeowners insurance company. Porch's strategy to win in homeowners insurance is to deploy leading vertical software solutions in select home-related industries, provide the best services for homebuyers including important moving services, leverage unique data for advantaged underwriting, and provide more protection for policyholders.

To learn more about Porch, visit ir.porchgroup.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this release are considered forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of management. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, and expectations reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or realize these plans, intentions, or expectations. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Generally, statements that are not historical facts, including statements concerning our financial outlook and guidance, possible or assumed future actions, business strategies, events, or results of operations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this release also include, but are not limited to, expectations regarding growth and profitability, including the timing or imminency of such growth and profitability; expectations regarding enhanced margins and more predictable earnings as a result of the PIRE structure; Q1 2025 business growth; achieving our $500 million Gross Written Premium target for 2025; scaling premium and strengthening Porch’s leadership in the homeowners insurance market; and expectations regarding whether the reciprocal is the optimal structure for our insurance business and the benefits financial and otherwise thereof. These statements may be preceded by, followed by, or include the words “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “forecast,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seek,” “plan,” “scheduled,” “anticipate,” “intend,” or similar expressions.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. You should not put undue reliance on these statements which speak only as of the date hereof. You should understand that the following important factors, among others, could affect our future results and could cause those results or other outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied in our forward-looking statements:

expansion plans and opportunities, and managing growth, to build a consumer brand;
the incidence, frequency, and severity of weather events, extensive wildfires, and other catastrophes;
economic conditions, especially those affecting the housing, insurance, and financial markets;
expectations regarding revenue, cost of revenue, operating expenses, and the ability to achieve and maintain future profitability;
existing and developing federal and state laws and regulations, including with respect to insurance, warranty, privacy, information security, data protection, and taxation, and management’s interpretation of and compliance with such laws and regulations;
the structure, availability, and performance of Porch Insurance Reciprocal Exchange (“PIRE”)’s and Homeowners of America (“HOA”)’s reinsurance programs to protect against loss and maintain their financial stability ratings and a healthy surplus, the success of which are dependent on a number of factors outside management’s control;
the possibility that a decline in our share price would result in a negative impact to HOA’s, surplus position and may require further financial support to enable HOA to meet applicable regulatory requirements and maintain financial stability rating;
uncertainties related to regulatory approval of insurance rates, policy forms, insurance products, license applications, acquisitions of businesses, or strategic initiative, and other matters within the purview of insurance regulators (including the discount associated with the shares contributed to HOA);
the ability of the Company and its affiliates to successfully operate and manage PIRE and our ability to successfully operate our businesses alongside a reciprocal exchange;
our ability to implement our plans, forecasts and other expectations with respect to PIRE and to realize expected synergies and/or convert policyholders from our existing insurance carrier business into policyholders of PIRE;
reliance on strategic, proprietary relationships to provide us with access to personal data and product information, and the ability to use such data and information to increase transaction volume and attract and retain customers;
the ability to develop new, or enhance existing, products, services, and features and bring them to market in a timely manner;
changes in capital requirements, and the ability to access capital when needed to provide statutory surplus;
our ability to timely repay our outstanding indebtedness;
the increased costs and initiatives required to address new legal and regulatory requirements arising from developments related to cybersecurity, privacy, and data governance and the increased costs and initiatives to protect against data breaches, cyber-attacks, virus or malware attacks, or other infiltrations or incidents affecting system integrity, availability, and performance;
retaining and attracting skilled and experienced employees;
costs related to being a public company; and
other risks and uncertainties discussed in Part II, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K (“Annual Report”) for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as those discussed elsewhere in this release and in subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), all of which are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all the risks to forward-looking statements made in this release.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this release primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those described above and elsewhere in this release. We disclaim any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.