InsWeb

About InsWeb

InsWeb Corporation operated as an early player in the online insurance marketplace, having been established in 1995 by co-founders Hussein A. Enan and Darrell Ticehurst. Enan, who served as Chairman and CEO, brought significant experience from the reinsurance industry, having founded Enan & Company in 1979, which later merged with a subsidiary of E.W. Blanch. The company was incorporated in California in February 1995 and later re-incorporated in Delaware in October 1996.

The firm's core business was an online platform that allowed consumers to compare insurance products and receive rate quotes from a variety of providers. InsWeb did not underwrite insurance policies itself; instead, it functioned as a technology-driven intermediary, connecting consumers with insurance companies and agents. The business model initially centered on generating revenue through referral fees paid by insurance carriers for customer leads. Over time, the company transitioned towards an online insurance agency model, earning commissions on policies sold through its platform. Its primary market was consumer insurance, with a heavy focus on automobile insurance, which accounted for the majority of its revenue. The platform later expanded to include homeowners, renters, and term life insurance.

Significant milestones for InsWeb include going public in 1999 and, as of its IPO, becoming the exclusive auto insurance quote provider for the Yahoo! internet portal. The company expanded its offerings by launching a nationwide marketplace for homeowners and renters insurance in 1998 and even established a joint venture in Japan in 1999. Throughout its history, InsWeb acquired other companies to bolster its market position, such as Potrero Media Corporation in 2010, to enhance its capabilities in health insurance lead generation. In a major strategic shift, InsWeb's primary insurance lead generation and marketing business was sold to Bankrate in a deal announced in October 2011 and completed in December 2011 for $65 million. Following the sale, InsWeb retained its patent portfolio and was expected to continue as a public company under a new business model focused on licensing its technologies, eventually becoming Internet Patents Corp. and later Prism Technologies.