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How to Measure Revenue Growth in a Digital Insurance Business

Digital insurance growth is best measured with a bridge from recognized revenue to premium volume, reinsurance, customer growth, and underwriting results.
From TheFinanceBase Team5 min to read
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Measure a digital insurance business’s growth using several clearly defined figures—not one unlabeled premium-growth rate. Start with recognized total revenue and insurance revenue, then show written-premium volume, the effect of reinsurance, customer and policy growth, and underwriting profitability. Keep the accounting basis, period, currency, and gross-or-net basis consistent when comparing years.

Start by defining what “revenue growth” means

For a like-for-like comparison, use:

Revenue growth (%) = (current-period revenue − comparable prior-period revenue) ÷ comparable prior-period revenue × 100.

The calculation is only meaningful if both periods use the same revenue definition, duration, currency, and consolidation perimeter. Identify whether the business is an insurer that bears risk, a managing general agent (MGA), broker or agency, embedded-insurance distributor, or a hybrid. Also state the geography, reporting period, business segment, accounting framework, and whether the figures are financial-statement measures or management-defined operating measures.

Explain material acquisitions or disposals, restatements, foreign-exchange effects, accounting-policy changes, and shifts in reinsurance arrangements. Each can affect reported growth without representing an equivalent change in underlying customer demand.

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Keep premium volume separate from recognized revenue

Gross written premium (GWP) and net written premium (NWP) describe premium volume, not automatically revenue recognized in the period. Under IFRS 17, insurance revenue reflects insurance service provided over time. The IFRS Foundation’s May 2017 IFRS 17 Effects Analysis says premiums written may be disclosed in the notes, but are not permitted as a measure of insurance revenue on the face of the income statement.

Written premiums generally represent premiums expected to be collected over contracts’ duration, rather than only amounts already received. Earned or recognized measures follow the relevant insurance service and accounting framework. The transition to IFRS 17 can therefore change reported figures relative to older premium-income, written-premium, or earned-premium presentations; effects depend on prior accounting policies and contract types.

Measure What it helps show Main caveat
Total revenue The recognized top line in the relevant financial statements. Can combine insurance and non-insurance items; inspect the components.
IFRS 17 insurance revenue or earned premium Insurance service revenue recognized in the period. Not equivalent to written premium; framework and product accounting matter.
GWP or written premium Underwriting production and market-volume trends. Not an IFRS 17 income-statement revenue measure; definitions vary by company.
NWP or net earned premium Premium trend after ceded reinsurance, on the measure’s stated basis. Changes in reinsurance can move the rate independently of customer demand.
Customer and policy indicators Digital funnel and portfolio growth drivers. Operating indicators, not recognized revenue; connect them to premium and retention.

Definitions are not standardized across all companies. The IFRS Foundation notes in its 2017 analysis that “There are no standardised methods for computing the non-GAAP measures included in the table.” Report a company’s definition and reconciliation rather than assuming a familiar label means the same calculation everywhere.

Show gross and net measures, and explain reinsurance

Gross measures show volume before ceded reinsurance; net measures reflect the portion retained after reinsurance. The two can grow at different rates when the insurer changes how much risk it cedes. Lemonade, for example, defines net earned premium as gross written premium earned over the policy period less the earned portion ceded to reinsurers. Its FY2025 Form 10-K cautions that gross earned premium should not be used in place of net earned premium, total revenue, or another GAAP measure.

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Use a metric bridge that makes these distinctions visible:

  • Total revenue: state the recognized financial-statement amount and identify material components.
  • Insurance revenue or earned premium: name the accounting framework and whether the figure is gross or net.
  • GWP or written premium: give the company’s definition, including material treatment of assumed business, adjustments, commissions, or other items.
  • NWP or net earned premium: explain ceded reinsurance and material changes in retention or reinsurance contracts.
  • Customer and policy growth: report available measures such as net additions, policies per customer, average premium, renewal or retention, product mix, and channel contribution.
  • Profitability and quality: pair growth with underwriting or insurance-service results, a defined loss or combined ratio, acquisition cost, and retention where available.

Use company examples to see why one rate is not enough

Lemonade, Inc.’s FY2025 Form 10-K, filed in 2026, illustrates how different measures can tell different stories. Its total revenue was $737.9 million in FY2025 versus $526.5 million in FY2024, a reported increase of 40%. The company reported $536.3 million of net earned premium, $122.7 million of ceding commission income, $37.8 million of net investment income, and $41.1 million of commission and other income as components of total revenue.

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Lemonade measure FY2024 FY2025 Reported growth
Gross written premium (GWP) $929.0 million $1,171.3 million 26%
Net written premium (NWP) $415.1 million $763.5 million 84%
Net earned premium $370.6 million $536.3 million 45%

These figures are company-reported FY2025 comparisons, not interchangeable measures. Lemonade attributed GWP growth primarily to increased net added customers, along with digital advertising and partnerships, geographic expansion, and product expansion. Its NWP and net earned premium figures also reflected reinsurance effects. The company reported net added customers rose 23% year over year. A reader should not interpret the 84% NWP rate as customer growth or as total revenue growth.

Hiscox Ltd.’s 2026 full-year results for 2025 provide a separate reconciliation example: insurance contract written premium was $4,979.0 million in 2025, compared with restated $4,703.7 million in 2024; insurance revenue was $4,883.7 million versus $4,672.5 million. Hiscox says its written-premium KPI covers premiums on business incepting in the year with specified adjustments, and its tables reconcile that KPI to insurance revenue. The 2024 comparative was restated after DirectAsia moved into the “other” segment for consistent presentation. The example shows why a reported KPI’s definition and any restatement belong beside the growth comparison.

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Connect digital growth drivers to revenue and profitability

Customer acquisition is a driver to investigate, not a substitute for a revenue measure. Track the funnel from marketing and distribution through quote, conversion, policy issuance, renewal, and retention. Where reported, interpret these alongside average premium, products per customer, channel and geographic mix, and cross-sell.

Lemonade says in its FY2025 Form 10-K: “We view customers as an important metric to assess our financial performance because customer growth drives our revenue, expands brand awareness, deepens our market penetration, creates additional upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and generates additional data to continue to improve the functioning of our platform.” This is the company’s stated rationale for tracking customers; it is not a universal or independently established causal rule. Assess whether customer gains translate into earned revenue and durable policies, and compare that growth with acquisition costs and underwriting outcomes.

Profitability measures need their own definitions. The IFRS Foundation identifies the combined ratio as a key profitability measure for short-term insurance, but ratios are not automatically comparable. PwC’s April 2024 analysis of UK reporting found variation in whether the denominator was gross or net insurance revenue and in the treatment of non-attributable expenses. Give the formula and denominator used; compare companies only when their calculations are aligned.

Use reporting-practice statistics with the right scope

PwC’s April 2024 review of its sample of UK company reporting found that over 80% of companies continued to refer to GWP and/or NWP. Just under 40% disclosed GWP/NWP as a key financial metric alone, while almost 45% disclosed insurance revenue or net insurance revenue alongside GWP or NWP. These are findings from PwC’s analyzed sample, not universal statistics about insurers or reporting worldwide.

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For accounting or regulatory reporting decisions, check the current requirements in the relevant jurisdiction and the insurer’s actual reporting basis. IFRS 17 guidance, a UK reporting sample, and company filings from different insurance structures answer different questions; none makes a company-specific non-GAAP KPI a standardized industry measure.

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