Joining the ranks of Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia—as well as InsurTechs Lemonade and Loop—Columbus, Ohio-based Branch announced yesterday that it is now a Certified B Corporation.
In short, a B Corp is a mission-driven company that balances purpose and profit, Branch said in a blog post about the certification, provided by B Lab to companies that use business as a force for good, meeting rigorous verified standards of social and environmental performance. “To us, that’s a really, really big deal,” the blog post said describing the significance of the certification.
“We started Branch because we believed we could create an insurance company that did good for society through its mission: lowering the price of insurance so more people could be insured,” said Steve Lekas, CEO and Co-founder of Branch, in a LinkedIn post also announcing the certification.
“Helping more people over chasing more profits—that’s the Branch way,” the blog post says, listing non-insurers like ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, outdoor gear companies Cotopaxi and Patagonia, and apparel and footwear brands Athleta and TOMS among the more well-known B Corps.
Read more about the purpose-driven activities of Patagonia in the CM article, “Seeding Innovation With Purpose: A 2021 Priority“
Referring to specifically to its own mission of offering affordable auto and home insurance, Branch’s blog post compares average annual costs of each based on figures from nerdwallet.com to U.S. census household income figures to conclude that “a middle-of-the-road American household spends nearly 5 percent of their gross annual income on home and car insurance”—an increasing burden in inflationary times.
“The intent of insurance was to be there when disaster strikes—to have your back on your worst day—not put a strain on your finances each and every day.
You could say, the insurance industry has lost its way,” the blog post says.
The remainder of the blog post details how Branch is realizing its goal of lowering the cost of insurance—through its organization as a reciprocal exchange, through its efforts to introduce efficiency to the process of bundling home and auto insurance, offering member vouch and referral discounts, and generally simplifying the buying process down to entering just two inputs, name and address.