Metromile to Begin New Life as Public Company as Reverse Merger Closes

Digital pay-per-mile auto insurer Metromile will officially become a public company tomorrow as the deal to be merged with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is expected to close today.

INSU Acquisition Corp. II, a publicly traded SPAC, announced that its stockholders have approved the merger and the deal is expected to close later today.

Following the close, the combined company will be named Metromile, Inc. and its common stock and warrants are expected to being trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbols MILE and MILEW, respectively, beginning February 10..

The merger, proposed in November, means Metromile becomes a publicly listed company without the risk of an initial public offering (IPO).

Sponsored by financial services firm Cohen & Co., Insu II targets business deals with companies in the insurance industry. Insu II raised $230 million in an initial public offering in September 2020.

It is anticipated that the transaction will provide Metromile with up to approximately $294 million of cash to use to reduce existing debt and accelerate growth, including expansion into new markets, increasing partnerships and launching new products and features.

Last week, San Francisco-based Metromile announced it had obtained regulatory approval for the reverse merger deal and that it had attracted $50 million in new investment from Ryan Graves, Uber’s former senior vice president of global operations, who will join the board. The investment includes secondary stock purchases and also participation in Metromile’s reverse merger deal with Insu Acquisition Corp. II.

Metromile reported that on January 19, it discovered a cybersecurity incident arising out of a software bug related to its online pre-filled quote form and application process. Based on its initial investigation, Metromile determined that unknown persons exploited the software bug to obtain personal information of certain individuals, including individuals’ driver’s license numbers, but, at this time, no customer data has been compromised. Metromile said it immediately took steps to contain and remediate the issue.