Root Inc. is leaving some pretty deep tire tracks on downtown Columbus. The homegrown insurtech closed out 2025 with more than $1.5 billion in gross written premiums and roughly 250 new hires, leaning hard into automaker partnerships and a fast-expanding independent-agent network. The result: record policies, record earnings and a more visible footprint in the city’s core.
Numbers That Mattered in 2025
For the year, Root’s revenue climbed about 29%, pushing gross written premiums beyond the $1.5 billion mark and delivering a record $40.3 million in net income. Policies in force ended 2025 at roughly 482,000. Management also reported better operating income and adjusted EBITDA as it tried to balance growth investments with increasing scale. Those performance highlights came after the company’s shareholder letter and earnings call, according to Insurance Journal.
OEM Tie-Ups and Distribution Drove Growth
Executives credited embedded partnerships and agent distribution for a big chunk of that momentum. One headline deal: a setup that lets consenting Toyota and Lexus drivers share connected-vehicle data in exchange for instant, telematics-based insurance quotes. On the company’s Feb. 25 earnings call, leadership told analysts that original equipment manufacturer integrations and the independent-agent channel were cutting quote-to-bind times and speeding up growth in policies in force, according to a transcript published by The Motley Fool.
What the Results Mean for Columbus
Back home, Root says it added about 250 jobs in 2025, building up underwriting, claims and partner-facing teams. That hiring keeps the company in the upper tier of downtown Columbus tech employers and further anchors its headquarters presence in the city’s core. The local expansion and downtown headcount were detailed by Columbus Business First. The growth follows earlier rounds of hiring and underscores Root’s role in Columbus’s steadily maturing tech-and-finance cluster.
Looking Ahead
Root ended the year with excess capital on the balance sheet and signaled it intends to keep spending on distribution, product development and data science, even as it manages a slightly higher loss ratio linked to rapid growth. Company materials and the latest financial release say the firm plans to keep scaling its embedded and agency-driven channels while watching underwriting trends closely, according to Root’s press release. For Columbus, the open question is whether that strategy keeps translating into more downtown jobs.
