MediaAlpha Inc

Our Company

Our mission is to help insurance carriers and distributors target and acquire customers more efficiently and at greater scale through technology and data science. Our technology platform brings leading insurance carriers and high-intent consumers together through a real-time, programmatic, transparent, and results-driven ecosystem. We believe we are the largest online customer acquisition platform in our core verticals of property & casualty (“P&C”) insurance, health insurance, and life insurance, supporting $571 million in Transaction Value(1) across our platform from these verticals during the year ended December 31, 2023.

We believe in the disruptive power of transparency. Traditionally, insurance customer acquisition platforms operated in a black box. We recognized that consumers may be valued differently by one insurer versus another; therefore, insurers should be able to determine pricing granularly based on the value that a particular customer segment is expected to bring to their business. As a result, we developed a technology platform that powers an ecosystem where buyers and sellers can transact with full transparency, control, and confidence.

We have multi-faceted relationships with top-tier insurance carriers and distributors. A buyer or a demand partner within our ecosystem is generally an insurance carrier or distributor seeking to reach high-intent insurance consumers. A seller or a supply partner is typically an insurance carrier looking to maximize the value of non-converting or low LTV consumers, or an insurance-focused research or other financial destination looking to monetize the high-intent shoppers on their websites. Our model’s versatility allows for the same insurance carrier or distributor to be both a demand and supply partner, which deepens the partner’s relationship with us. In fact, it is this supply partnership that presents insurance carriers with a highly differentiated monetization opportunity, enabling them to capture revenue from website visitors who either do not qualify for a policy or otherwise may be more valuable as a potential referral to another carrier.

1 “Transaction Value” is an operating metric that we present in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to supplement the financial information we present on a GAAP basis. Transaction Value represents the total gross dollars transacted by our partners on our platform. See“Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations-Key business and operating metrics.”

For the year ended December 31, 2023, we had 15 of the top 20 largest auto insurance carriers by customer acquisition spend as demand partners on our platform. Of these demand partners, 53% were also supply partners in our ecosystem. During 2023, an average of 36.9 million consumers shopped for insurance products through the websites of our diversified group of supply partners and our proprietary websites each month, producing an average of 8.2 million Consumer Referrals on our platform each month.

We believe our technology is a key differentiator and a powerful driver of our performance. We maintain deep, custom integrations with partners representing the majority of our Transaction Value, which enable automated, data-driven processes that optimize these partners’ customer acquisition spend and revenue. Through our platform, our insurance carrier partners can target and price across over 35 separate consumer attributes to manage customized acquisition strategies. Our platform’s granular price management tools and robust data science capabilities enable our insurance partners to target consumers based on a precise calculation of the expected lifetime value of the consumer to that partner and to make real-time, automated customer acquisition decisions.

We built our business model to align the interests of all parties participating on our platform. We generate revenue by earning a fee for each Consumer Referral sold on our platform. Our revenue is generally not contingent on the sale of an insurance product to the consumer.

We have historically delivered strong growth in our Transaction Value and revenue, enabled by our unique business model and technology platform. However, for the year ended December 31, 2023, we generated $593.4 million of Transaction Value and $388.1 million of revenue, representing decreases of 19.5% and 15.4%, respectively, compared with the year ended December 31, 2022, as challenging conditions in the personal auto insurance industry continued to pressure P&C carrier underwriting profitability and in turn customer acquisition investments on our platform. Beginning in the second half of 2021, many of our demand partners in our P&C vertical experienced higher-than-expected underwriting losses driven by inflation in automobile replacement and repair costs, leading them to reduce their customer acquisition spend until they obtained approval of premium increases from state regulators. We believe we are poised to capitalize on the continued shift among P&C carriers to direct, digital distribution when their underwriting profitability recovers.

In our health and life insurance verticals, we continue to capitalize on the shift to direct, digital distribution. We aim to drive deeper adoption and integration of our platform within the insurance ecosystem to continue delivering strong results to our partners. During 2022, we closed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Customer Helper Team, LLC ("CHT"), a provider of customer generation and acquisition services for Medicare insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. We believe the acquisition is a good strategic fit with our long-term objectives and will increase our ability to generate Consumer Referrals on various social media and short form video platforms.

We expect the broad secular trends driving our historical growth to resume once P&C carrier profitability recovers and they resume their customer acquisition investments on our platform. See“Part II Item 7 - Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations - Results of operations” for more information.

We designed our business model to be capital efficient, with high operating leverage and cash flow conversion. We have funded our growth primarily through internally generated cash flow with no outside primary capital. Our strong cash flow generation is driven by (i) the nature of our revenue model, which is fee based and generated at the time a Consumer Referral is sold, and (ii) our proprietary technology platform, which is highly scalable and requires minimal capital expenditures ($0.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022).

The foundation of our success is our company culture. Personal development is critical to our team’s engagement and retention, and we continually invest to support our core values of open-mindedness, intellectual curiosity, candor, and humility. This has resulted in a growth-minded team, with low turnover, committed to building great products and the long-term success of our partners.

Our market opportunity

Insurance is one of the largest industries in the United States, with attractive growth characteristics and market fundamentals. Insurance companies wrote over $2 trillion in premiums in 2022, growing at a 9% CAGR from 2018, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Demand for insurance products is stable, due to, in many instances, coverage being mandated by law (for example, auto insurance) or federally subsidized (for example, senior health insurance). The insurance industry as a whole is highly competitive and invests heavily in customer acquisition. Overall insurance advertising spend is expected to grow at double digit rates annually over the next decade. Total advertising spend in the insurance industry was $11 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow to approximately $17 billion by 2027, according to Allied Market Research and the Business Research Company.

Our technology platform was created to serve and grow with our insurance end markets. While the P&C insurance industry has experienced underwriting losses driven by inflation in automobile replacement and repair costs, we believe that the secular trends in the insurance industry will provide strong tailwinds for our business over the long term.

•Direct-to-consumer is the fastest growing insurance distribution channel. In the auto insurance industry, there are carriers focused on DTC distribution (such as Progressive and GEICO) and carriers focused more on traditional, agent-based distribution (such as State Farm, Liberty Mutual and Allstate). The industry shift to more direct distribution is accelerating. A major driver of this growth has been the DTC carriers’ outsized investments, relative to peers, in direct customer acquisition channels. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, Progressive and GEICO's advertising spend in 2022 was $1.7 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. Traditional, agent-based carriers have responded by investing more heavily in direct customer acquisition efforts themselves, as well as launching digital brands (such as Nationwide launching Spire), acquiring digital agencies (such as Prudential acquiring AssuranceIQ), or acquiring digital insurers (such as Allstate acquiring SquareTrade).

•More insurance consumers are shopping online. Consumers are increasingly using the internet not just for research and price discovery, but to purchase insurance as well. According to TransUnion, the number of consumers shopping for insurance online rose from 22% in 2022 to 27% in 2023. Younger consumers are not the only driving force of this shift; the share of digitally savvy older consumers is rapidly growing. According to the Pew Research Center, the share of U.S. internet users ages 65 or older has grown from 66% in 2018 to 88% in 2023.

•Insurance customer acquisition spending is growing. Total customer acquisition spend in the insurance industry was estimated to be $146 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to approximately $176 billion by 2025, according to William Blair. In fact, two of the top five most-advertised brands in the U.S. across traditional and online channels are insurance companies—Progressive and GEICO. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, Progressive’s customer acquisition spend was $1.7 billion in 2022, while GEICO’s customer acquisition spend was nearly $1.3 billion in the same period. In the face of such aggressive spending and customer acquisition by DTC carriers such as Progressive and GEICO, agent-based carriers are compelled to spend heavily to remain competitive.

•Digital customer acquisition spending by insurers has plenty of headroom. According to William Blair, insurance carriers allocate a lower percentage of their advertising budgets to digital channels than other industries. While the advertising industry as a whole was estimated to allocate approximately 66% of their budgets to digital in 2021, insurers allocated less than 22% of their budgets to digital channels in that year. Industry analysts expect digital marketing spend by the insurance industry to narrow this gap significantly over time as carriers increase their adoption of digital channels.

•Carriers and distributors are increasingly focused on optimizing customer acquisition budgets. Mass-market customer acquisition spend is becoming more costly, leading carriers and distributors to increasingly focus on optimizing customer acquisition spend. They are able to do so by adopting more sophisticated customer acquisition strategies enabled by data science. A significant percentage of marketers believe the inability to measure customer acquisition impact across channels and campaigns is one of their biggest challenges in demonstrating customer acquisition performance. We believe there is growing demand for improved transparency of Consumer Referral quality, for the ability to secure higher quality Consumer Referrals online, and for the ability to manage consumer acquisition spend across multiple vendors.

MediaAlpha is poised to capitalize on these trends. We believe that we provide the leading technology platform enabling insurance carriers and distributors to efficiently acquire customers online at scale. Our platform allows buyers to target consumers granularly and to determine their pricing based on how they value various consumer segments. Buyers leveraging our data science capabilities make value-maximizing decisions on how to acquire customers. This results in greater customer acquisition efficiency and better return on investment, allowing us to attract more buyers into the ecosystem. Simultaneously, we provide our supply partners the insights and tools they need to drive competition for their high-intent consumers and maximize yield, which draws more supply partners into the ecosystem, providing our buyers with even more high-quality demand sources. As both demand and supply partners begin to see the benefits of the platform, we deepen our relationships with them through additional integrations that drive more data into the platform. All of this creates the powerful “flywheel” effect that has propelled our business forward as a result of the value created within our ecosystem.

Our platform

We have created one of the largest insurance customer acquisition technology platforms. For the year ended December 31, 2023, we had $593.4 million in Transaction Value and served over 920 total insurance partners, excluding our agent buyers. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we had $737.5 million in Transaction Value and served over 950 total insurance partners, excluding our agent buyers.

During 2023, high-intent consumers shopped for insurance products on the websites of sellers on our platform and our proprietary websites over 400 million times, resulting in approximately 99 million Consumer Referrals acquired by buyers on our platform. We serve approximately 600 buyer partners, excluding our agent buyers. Our platform was designed to support multiple Consumer Referral products and flexible deployment models to best serve the varying needs of our partners.

Insurance carriers access our platform through a self-service web interface that enables them to manage customer acquisition strategies across all sources of Consumer Referrals, efficiently and with full transparency. Our platform provides insurance companies sophisticated targeting capabilities for efficient customer acquisition. Further, it offers our carrier partners the ability to offset their customer acquisition costs by using predictive analytics to identify and refer non-converting consumers to other carriers, delivering better returns on investment relative to traditional channels.

We connect insurance companies with websites where consumers shop for insurance. Insurance carriers and distributors are able to target high-intent consumers when they are actively shopping for insurance. Our end consumers typically access our partners’ websites or our proprietary websites looking for an insurance quote, where they volunteer relevant data in connection with their quote request. Our platform then controls the matching of these consumers with insurance companies, presenting them with multiple brands to choose from. We believe the rich data available with every consumer quote request gives our platform the unparalleled ability to direct each Consumer Referral to the right set of carriers. We maximize value to both demand and supply partners by allowing insurance companies to reach consumers when they are actively shopping at the point of purchase and precisely target granular consumer segments using rich data.

We enable insurance companies to reach and acquire new customers in multiple ways. On our platform, end consumers can engage with insurance companies through multiple touchpoints based on their preferences. Our platform enables consumers to (i) proceed to an insurance carrier’s website on a self-directed basis to purchase a policy (click), (ii) engage with an insurance carrier or agent via phone (call), or (iii) have their data submitted to insurance companies to receive inbound inquiries (lead). Our platform’s flexibility in turn enables insurance carriers to acquire and convert consumers through one or more touchpoints, depending on their strengths and preferences.

The following table presents the percentages of total Transaction Value generated from clicks, calls and leads for the year ended December 31, 2023 and 2022:

Our platform leverages precise data and data science for maximum efficiency. Insurance carriers use precise data to target and price consumer segments across demographic and geographic attributes on a source transparent basis. This allows insurance carriers to pay the right price for each Consumer Referral based on their business objectives. Insurance carriers can integrate with our platform to provide real-time conversion feedback, allowing them to measure returns on their spending granularly and execute algorithmic optimization of customer acquisition cost based on the expected LTV of the customer. Increasing the number and depth of our conversion data integrations with our partners remains a key part of our strategy.

Insurance carriers are able to extract the maximum value from each consumer opportunity. We have extensive data integrations with our partners to support efficient customer acquisition. These data integrations allow us to more seamlessly transact a Consumer Referral by taking information an end consumer has already provided and pre-populating it into an insurance carrier’s purchase process, potentially increasing policy conversion rates. This enhances the value of the Consumer Referral to our insurance carriers, adding significant value to all parties in our platform. As of December 31, 2023, we had 85 buyers with this type of integration in place for active and future campaigns, representing 59% of the total Transaction Value from our insurance verticals for the year then ended. Increasing the number and depth of our data integrations with our partners remains a key part of our strategy, and we believe this number will increase as our platform grows.

Our transaction models. We transact with our demand partners and supply partners through two operating models, Open Marketplace and Private Marketplace. In our Open Marketplace transactions, we have separate agreements with demand partners and suppliers and have control over the Consumer Referrals that are sold to our demand partners. In our Private Marketplace transactions, demand partners and suppliers contract with one another directly, and we earn fees from our supply partners based on the value of the Consumer Referrals transacted on our platform. For more information regarding these arrangements, see“Management’s discussion and analysis-Key components of our results of operations-Revenue.”

Our technology

Our product is a technology platform that allows insurance carriers and distributors to acquire customers and optimize customer acquisition costs to align with expected customer LTV, in a single data-rich but user-friendly environment. Our technology is what enables our growth, scale, and operating leverage, and is a key part of what differentiates us from our competitors. It is also what enables our partners to scale their customer acquisition and monetization efficiently and with minimal operating overhead. With nearly 99 million Consumer Referrals transacted on our platform in 2023, we believe we offer the largest source of Consumer Referrals in the insurance sector.

Our product is a robust, real-time customer acquisition and data analytics platform. It is fueled by rich, anonymized consumer data provided by our extensive data integrations with our partners. At the heart of our platform is a set of proprietary predictive analytics algorithms that incorporate hundreds of variables to generate conversion probabilities for each unique consumer, enabling our partners to align customer acquisition costs with expected customer LTV across the platform.

Our platform architecture is elegant, scalable, and vertical agnostic, which has enabled us to innovate rapidly in our core insurance verticals and grow opportunistically across sectors with similarly attractive attributes. We continuously invest in our technology and believe that our focus on innovation enhances our competitive position.

We believe the following attributes collectively differentiate the MediaAlpha technology platform:

Multiple high-quality Consumer Referrals accessible through a single platform with transparent pricing and control. Most insurance carriers and distributors today have multiple sources for customer acquisition. These sources offer a wide range of Consumer Referral quality and, in most cases, must be managed manually and separately by insurance carriers. Our platform allows users to access multiple sources of Consumer Referrals transparently through a unified platform with a single sign-on, creating scale and operational efficiencies.

Proprietary user data integrated in a secure environment. Our platform allows buyers to fully integrate first-party consumer data to enhance targeting parameters, bidding granularity, and conversion tracking, resulting in more accurate customer acquisition and LTV predictions. We maintain robust data security protections and preserve the confidentiality of each insurance carrier’s customer acquisition strategy. We are able to seamlessly aggregate this data across all of our users to enhance our data analytics models while maintaining end-consumer confidentiality. We believe this has allowed us to continue strengthening our rich consumer database and analytics platform and to maintain strong relationships with our partners.

Robust data science tools to optimize customer acquisition. Our unique search and conversion datasets enable automated, algorithmic customer acquisition optimizations. As our platform grows and processes more customer acquisition transactions, we gather more conversion data to further refine our predictive analytics algorithms. This further enhances our platform’s capability to predict our partners’ expected return per consumer and support more efficient customer acquisition strategies. We believe this creates a flywheel effect by which the attractiveness and value of our platform will continue to grow as we scale our marketplaces.

Self-service model. We offer a self-service model that empowers our partners to directly manage the buying and selling process independently. Supply partners can easily manage their digital consumer traffic on our platform, while demand partners can direct their consumer acquisition spend in real time with minimal involvement from our team. We believe this enables us to scale efficiently without requiring significant investments in sales and support functions.

Highly extensible and scalable platform. Our platform and industry-agnostic technology enables us to quickly expand our operations into existing and adjacent verticals with minimal investments. We have organically scaled the P&C insurance vertical and the health and life insurance verticals to $277.6 million and $293.9 million in Transaction Value, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2023. While our primary focus remains on insurance, we intend to continue to grow opportunistically in sectors with similar, attractive market fundamentals. We believe our proprietary technology will allow us to react nimbly to growing demands and opportunities in emerging verticals.

Our target audience

Our buyers: Our demand partners are insurance carriers and distributors looking to target high-intent consumers deep in their purchase journey. Repeat buyers continue to be a strong driver of our business, with 93% of our Transaction Value for 2023 driven by repeat buyers from 2022 and 92% of our Transaction Value for 2022 driven by repeat buyers from 2021.

Our value proposition for buyers

•Efficiency at scale. We believe we operate the insurance industry’s largest customer acquisition platform, delivering the volume of Consumer Referrals insurance companies need to drive profitable growth, while also providing precise targeting capabilities to ensure they connect with the right prospects. We believe this gives our demand partners the ability to realize greater efficiencies relative to other customer acquisition channels.

•Granular and transparent control. Our platform allows for real-time, granular control and full source transparency with every buying and pricing decision. We believe this gives our buyers the flexibility they need to realize favorable LTV relative to customer acquisition costs to maximize their revenue opportunities and the effectiveness of their marketing investments.

•Unparalleled partnership. With a fully managed service option, custom integrations, and industry-leading technology, we are dedicated to providing long-term value to our demand partners’ businesses. We have designed our platform to put the best interests of our partners first, fostering a healthy ecosystem within which buyers can transact with confidence.

Our sellers: Our supply partners use our platform to monetize their digital consumer traffic. Our supply partners are primarily insurance carriers looking to maximize the value of non-converting or low LTV consumers, and insurance-focused research destinations and financial websites looking to monetize high-intent customers. Repeat sellers continue to be a strong driver of our business, with 99% of our Transaction Value for 2023 driven by repeat sellers from 2022 and 98% of our Transaction Value for 2022 driven by repeat sellers from 2021.

Our value proposition for sellers

•Yield maximization. Our proprietary technology platform provides sellers with a suite of optimization tools, as well as inventory and buyer management features, that maximize competition for, and yield from, their high-intent consumers.

•Predictive analysis. Through our platform’s advanced predictive analysis and data science capabilities, sellers can assess conversion probabilities and expected customer LTV for every consumer in real time. We believe the integration of these data science models with our sellers’ user experience decision engines is a unique differentiator of our business.

•Real-time insights. We provide our sellers with unique data as to the type of consumer segments each buyer values. By providing in-depth reporting and real-time, granular insights, our sellers have the ability to continuously optimize their own customer acquisition and monetization decisions.

Our end consumers: Our end consumers are primarily high-intent, online insurance shoppers. Due to the broad participation of top-tier insurance carriers within our ecosystem, consumers are able to more efficiently navigate a range of options and offers relevant to their policy searches. During the year ended December 31, 2023, high-intent consumers shopped for insurance products on the websites of sellers on our platform and our proprietary websites over 400 million times, resulting in approximately 99 million Consumer Referrals acquired by buyers on our platform.

Our value proposition for end consumers

•Search relevancy. By enabling insurance carriers and distributors to apply sophisticated targeting, we facilitate the delivery of hyper-relevant product options to our end consumers based on consumer-provided demographics and other relevant characteristics. We believe this improves the overall research and purchase experience and helps enable our end consumers to make better decisions.

•Shopping efficiency. We facilitate access to the most relevant products for each respective end consumer, allowing for minimal research and maximum efficiency, through an omni-channel, seamless consumer platform experience. We enable consumers to get quotes from multiple insurance carriers and distributors in different ways, including directly online or offline.

Our strengths

We believe that our competitive advantages are based on the following key strengths:

•Highly scalable, innovative technology platform with rich data. Our proprietary platform is built to be highly extensible and flexible, enabling us to quickly and efficiently develop custom solutions and tools to address the varying and evolving needs of our partners. Supported by our proprietary algorithms, our platform is able to provide continuous, real-time feedback and insights that buyers can use to maximize the value of every consumer opportunity. Our deep data integrations allow our buyers to utilize millions of anonymized data points to target and acquire their desired customers with a unique level of precision and control. As of December 31, 2023, there were over 410 insurance supply partners on our platform. We also provide our supply partners with sophisticated, data-driven yield management and monetization capabilities. We believe these capabilities are critical to our partners’ monetization strategies, as they enable optimization of business performance and revenue. Our platform is vertical agnostic, allowing us to quickly and easily expand into new markets with attractive attributes.

The increased participation in our technology-driven platform will continue to generate valuable data, enhance feedback loops, and drive stronger results for all participants in the ecosystem. We believe this creates a flywheel effect as our platform continues to grow.

•Superior operating leverage. We designed our business to be highly scalable, driving sustainable long-term growth that delivers superior value to both demand and supply partners. Our technology enables us to grow in a highly capital efficient manner, with minimal need for working capital or capital expenditure investment. In 2023, we employed an average of 142 individuals, who produced $593.4 million of Transaction Value ($4.2 million per employee), $56.6 million of net loss ($0.4 million per employee), and $27.1 million of Adjusted EBITDA ($0.2 million per employee) and in 2022, we employed 164 individuals on average who drove $737.5 million of Transaction Value ($4.5 million per employee), $72.4 million of net loss ($0.4 million per employee), and $22.9 million of Adjusted EBITDA ($0.1 million per employee) for the year.

•Sticky, tenured relationships with insurance carriers and distributors. We have developed multi-faceted, deeply-integrated partnerships with insurance carriers and distributors, who can be both buyers and sellers on our platform. We enable insurance carriers and distributors as buyers to optimize their customer acquisition spend by offering source-level transparency, granular controls, and predictive tools to drive measurably superior performance. When we work with carriers and distributors as sellers, we enable them to use data science to turn high-intent policy shoppers unlikely to purchase a policy from that specific carrier or distributor into highly valuable Consumer Referrals for other carriers or distributors, thereby offsetting a portion of their total customer acquisition costs.

We believe the versatility and breadth of our offerings, coupled with our focus on high-quality products, provide significant value to insurance carriers and distributors, resulting in strong retention rates. Our relationships with our partners are deep, long standing, and involve top-tier insurance carriers in the industry. 15 of the top 20 largest auto insurance carriers by customer acquisition spend are demand partners on our platform. In 2023, 93% of total Transaction Value executed on our platform came from demand partner relationships in existence during 2022. In 2022, 92% of total Transaction Value executed on our platform came from demand partner relationships in existence during 2021.

•Culture of transparency, innovation, and execution. Since inception, our vision has been to bring unparalleled transparency and efficiency to the online customer acquisition ecosystem, executed through a powerful technology-enabled platform. Transparency is built into our platform and is at the heart of our culture, enabling us to focus on sustainable long-term success over near-term wins. We are relentless about continuous innovation and aim to use our platform to solve big industry-wide problems. We are data-driven and focused on delivering measurable results for our partners. We believe that our long-term vision, dedication to solving systemic problems in the industry, and our relentless drive to improve, will continue to empower us to be the platform of choice for our partners.

Our growth opportunities

We intend to grow our business through the following key areas:

•Increase Transaction Value from our partners. We aim to increase overall Transaction Value from our partners across our insurance verticals by continuously improving the volume and accuracy of customer conversion data analyzed in our platform, eliminating friction between consumer handoffs, and developing additional tools and features to increase engagement. We believe that providing our platform participants with better value and a larger selection of high-quality Consumer Referrals over time will lead to increased spending on our platform.

•Improve ecosystem efficiency. We believe that traditional customer acquisition models are highly inefficient, charging platform users inflated prices while lacking the transparency and granularity to allow participants to reach end consumers effectively. Our platform is designed to disrupt and address these systemic inefficiencies by enhancing automated buying strategies and granular price discovery processes. We will continue to expand our platform and drive value for all participants within the ecosystem by increasing the number and depth of data integrations with our partners.

•Bring new partners to our platform. There are potential buyers and sellers who are not yet using our platform, and new companies are being formed every year. We intend to gain adoption of our platform with new insurance partners through business development, word-of-mouth referrals, and inbound inquiries.

•Grow our product offerings. We are constantly exploring new ways to deliver value to our partners through development of new tools and services and improvement of our conversion analytics model. We believe that providing further customized solutions and higher touch services for our partners will enhance the stickiness of our offerings and drive more customer acquisition spend and users to our platform.

•Deepen our relationships with agents. We intend to strategically expand our insurance agency relationships to capture additional customer acquisition spend within our core insurance verticals. We have a dedicated team working to incorporate agents into our digital platform and help them expand their customer acquisition capabilities. We transacted nearly 99 million Consumer Referrals on our platform in the year ended December 31, 2023, equipping us with valuable conversion insights to help us optimize consumer routing to agents based on their desired goals. This dedicated team will continue to enhance our agency capabilities.

•Expand into and scale new verticals. While we are currently focused on growing our core insurance verticals, we continue to seek expansion opportunities in markets that share similar characteristics. We believe our vertical-agnostic platform and established playbook for entering new markets will allow us to capture attractive market opportunities effectively if we decide to pursue such opportunities. We believe we have the ability to enter most new verticals with only a modest increase in headcount.

Our competition

We operate in the broadly defined tech-enabled insurance distribution sector. We are part of a sector that is disrupting the conventional agent-based insurance distribution channels. This sector is comprised of companies engaged in varied aspects of customer acquisition. On one end of the spectrum, there are companies that are engaged in simple Consumer Referrals acquisition, which they sell to insurance carriers or distributors. On the other end of the spectrum, there are companies that acquire the customer through digital channels and take them through the entire needs-based assessment and policy application and submission process.

Within this sector, our closest competitors are technology companies engaged in digital customer acquisition. Traditional digital consumer acquisition models focus on serving buyers of Consumer Referrals by acquiring consumers from paid search, proprietary websites or other digital avenues and selling them to insurance carriers or producers. Our model is different. We operate a two-sided marketplace where sophisticated demand and supply partners buy and sell high-quality Consumer Referrals. We compete on the basis of a number of factors, including return on investment, technology, and client service.

Our platform also offers DTC digital spend optimization capabilities that compete primarily with home grown systems that buyers use to aggregate multiple sources of digital customer acquisition. As the number of digital consumer acquisition sources grows, the complexity and cost of managing those sources continues to increase. As a result, over time we have seen significant increases in the number of participants on our platform, further enhancing our scale and return on investment to all our partners. We have deep integrations with our partners that are costly and time consuming to implement. We believe our scale makes it hard for new entrants to gain direct access to buyers and sellers and replicate what we have built over the years.

Intellectual property

The protection of our technology, intellectual property and proprietary rights is an important aspect of our business. We rely on a combination of trade secret, trademark and copyright laws, confidentiality agreements, and technical measures to establish, maintain and protect our intellectual property rights and technology. Additionally, we enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and enter into confidentiality agreements with third parties, including our buyers and sellers. However, our contractual provisions may not always be effective at preventing unauthorized parties from obtaining our intellectual property and proprietary technologies. Intellectual property laws, procedures, and restrictions provide only limited protection and any of our intellectual property or proprietary rights may be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated. Further, the laws of certain countries do not protect intellectual property or proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S., and, therefore, in certain jurisdictions, we may be unable to protect our proprietary technology.

Our in-house know-how is an important element of our intellectual property. The development and management of our platform requires sophisticated coordination among many specialized employees. We believe that duplication of this coordination by competitors or individuals seeking to copy our platform would be difficult. The risk of a competitor effectively replicating the functionality of our platform is further mitigated by the fact that our service offerings are cloud-based, such that most of the core technology operating on our systems is never exposed to a user or to our competitors. To protect our technology, we implement multiple layers of security. Access to our platform, other than to obtain basic information, requires system usernames and passwords. We also add additional layers of security such as dual-factor authentication, encryption in transit and intrusion detection. See“Risk factors-Risks related to our intellectual property rights and our technology.”

Seasonality

Our results are subject to significant seasonal fluctuations as a result of vertical level seasonality. Our property & casualty insurance vertical is typically characterized by seasonal weakness during our fourth quarter due to lower customer acquisition budgets from buyers and lower supply of Consumer Referrals during the holiday period. During our first quarter, our P&C insurance vertical typically exhibits seasonal strength as customer acquisition budgets from our buyers and Consumer Referral volume from our sellers both increase sequentially.

Our health insurance vertical typically experiences seasonal strength during the fourth quarter due to a material increase in Consumer Referrals and a related increase in customer acquisition budgets in connection with the Medicare annual enrollment period, which generally runs from October 15 to December 7 each year, and the under-65 health insurance open enrollment period, which generally runs from November 1 through December 15 in many states, with the last ending on January 31st of the following year. Customer acquisition spending in our health insurance vertical is typically lower during the other quarters of the year because most consumers enroll in these plans during the annual and open enrollment periods. The seasonal strength in the fourth quarter results in a higher level of accounts receivable related to our health insurance vertical as of our fiscal year-end, which are typically collected during the subsequent first quarter.

Regulation

Various aspects of our business are, may become, or may be viewed by regulators from time to time as subject, directly or indirectly, to U.S. federal, state and foreign laws and regulations. We are subject to laws and regulations that apply to businesses in general, such as those relating to worker classification, employment, payments, worker confidentiality obligations, consumer protection and taxation. As an online business, we are also subject to laws and regulations governing the internet, such as those relating to intellectual property ownership and infringement, trade secrets, the distribution of electronic communications, search engines, consumer privacy, and internet tracking technologies, and could be affected by potential changes to laws and regulations that affect the growth, popularity or use of the internet, including with respect to net neutrality and taxation on the use of the internet or e-commerce transactions.

Because we collect, process, store, share, disclose, transfer and use consumer information and other data and engage in marketing and advertising activities via the phone, email and text messages, we are also subject to laws and regulations that address privacy, data protection and collection, storing, sharing, use, disclosure, retention, security, protection transfer and other processing of personal information and other data, including the California Online Privacy Protection Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”), the California Privacy Rights Act (the “CPRA”) and other state privacy laws, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (the “CAN-SPAM Act”), Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (“CASL”), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (the “TCPA”), the U.S. Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”), Section 5(c) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Federal Trade Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), supplemented by national laws (such as, in the United Kingdom, the Data Protection Act 2018) and further implemented through binding guidance from the European Data Protection Board, and the EU’s ePrivacy Directive, which is expected to be replaced by the EU’s ePrivacy Regulation, which is still under development and will replace current national laws that implement the ePrivacy Directive. The burdens imposed by these and other laws and regulations that may be enacted, or new interpretation of existing laws and regulations, may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and to incur substantial costs in order to comply. We take a variety of technical and organizational security measures and other measures to protect our data, including data pertaining to our end consumers, employees and business partners. Despite measures we put in place, we may be unable to anticipate or prevent unauthorized access to such data.

A substantial majority of the insurance carriers using our platform are P&C insurance carriers, health and/or Medicare insurance carriers or life insurance carriers. As a result, we are affected by laws and regulations relating to the insurance and healthcare industries, both of which are heavily regulated. In addition, during 2021 we became a licensed health insurance broker in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, which has subjected us to laws and regulations applicable to insurance brokers and to the authority of the insurance regulators in those jurisdictions. The laws and regulations applicable to these industries have changed significantly in recent years, and other changes may occur in the future. For example, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and related regulatory reforms have materially changed the regulation of health insurance. In addition, recent and proposed changes in the regulations governing the marketing of Medicare insurance have materially changed the rules regarding how such policies are marketed, and may materially restrict our ability to sell Consumer Referrals to certain buyers in the future. While it is difficult to determine the impact of potential reforms on our future business, it is possible that such changes in industry regulation could affect our operations and/or demand for our platform.

Because the laws and regulations governing the internet, privacy, data security, marketing, insurance and healthcare are constantly evolving and striving to keep pace with innovations in technology and media, it is possible that we may need to materially alter the way we conduct some parts of our business activities or be prohibited from conducting such activities altogether at some point in the future. See“Risk factors-Risks related to laws and regulation.”

Employees

We are committed to attracting and retaining the brightest and best talent, so investing in human capital is critical to our success. The employee traits we value include hands-on work no matter what the experience level, intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, growth mindset, and deeply caring about the quality of work. As of December 31, 2023, we had 137 full-time employees. The human capital measures and objectives that we focus on in managing our business include talent acquisition and retention, employee engagement, development and training, diversity and inclusion, compensation and pay equity, and employee health and welfare. None of our employees are represented by a collective bargaining unit or are a party to a collective bargaining agreement.

Employee Engagement and Development

Our employee engagement efforts include regular “all-hands” meetings and frequent executive communications, through which we aim to keep our employees well-informed and to maximize transparency. We believe in continual improvement and use employee feedback to drive and improve processes that support our customers and ensure a deep understanding of our employees’ needs. We conduct annual confidential employee surveys and believe that ongoing performance feedback encourages greater engagement in our business and improves individual performance. Each year, our employees participate in a 360-degree evaluation process to identify critical capabilities for development and establish new stretch goals.

We seek to achieve our business objectives through a deep commitment to talent development. Our talent development efforts include quarterly goals, “lunch and learn” events, individualized professional development plans, management training, internal workshops, guest speakers, and book club discussions related to enhancing business skills.

We use a combination of company and department goals to drive the execution of our business strategy. All of our teams participate in an annual strategic planning process to identify objectives for business growth and innovation, and set and review goals throughout the year to support the Company’s annual objectives.

Pay Equity

Our employee compensation strategy is designed to support three primary objectives: to attract and retain the best team members, to reflect and reinforce our most important values, and to align team member interests with shareholder interests in building enduring value. We believe people should be paid for what they do and how they do it, regardless of their gender, race, or other personal characteristics. To deliver on that commitment, we monitor market compensation levels and set pay ranges based on market data, and we consider factors such as an employee’s role and experience, the location of their job, and their performance, in making compensation decisions. We also regularly review our compensation practices, both in terms of our overall workforce and individual employees, to ensure that we compensate our employees in a fair and equitable manner. We also comply with the applicable pay transparency laws by ensuring that our job postings and applicant/employee requests for compensation information are in compliance with state or local laws.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We remain committed to fostering, cultivating, and maintaining a culture of diversity and inclusion. Our philosophy and actions are built on the premise that as an employer and citizens of our communities, we can create opportunities for lasting change.

We take a multi-tiered approach to our diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) practices. We continue to expand our recruiting efforts through employer partnerships and targeted events to diversify our candidate pipeline. Our employee benefits package is tailored to meet a variety of our employees’ needs, including a generous parental leave, open paid time-off, and a charitable giving program for employees to support causes and organizations that have special meaning to them. Our core values speak to the importance of individuality, transparency, and challenging ourselves to actively learn and grow together. We will be offering discussion sessions and foundational DEI training to further promote awareness and acceptance. As we look ahead, we will continue to assess our company practices with the intent of creating sustainable programs over the long-term, recognizing the importance of prioritizing progress over perfection.

Community Involvement

We aim to enhance the communities where we live and work, and believe that this commitment helps in our efforts to attract and retain employees. We offer employees the opportunity to give back to charities of their choice and the Company matches team member contributions to qualified 501(c)(3) organizations, up to $2,500 per team member per calendar year and also by offering employees paid volunteer time each year. We also offer company-sponsored volunteer events to our employees.

Employee Health and Welfare

Our employee benefits package is tailored to meet a variety of our employees’ needs, including generous health insurance benefits, 401(k) matching contributions, generous parental and other leave benefits, open paid time-off, and a charitable giving program for employees to support causes and organizations that have special meaning to them.

We employ a hybrid work schedule, with most employees working in one of our offices two days per week, and working remotely on other days, to offer employees the flexibility they need to balance their personal and work lives. To cover the costs and help ease the stress of working from home, we provide our employees with benefits such as internet and cell phone reimbursement, office supply purchasing, flexible work schedules, and access to other tools. We monitor and follow the advice of the public health authorities in the areas where our offices are located.

Available Information

We file with the SEC Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”) with the SEC. The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC athttp://www.sec.gov.

Our internet website address ishttps://www.mediaalpha.com/. We make available on our internet website, free of charge, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after such materials are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC.