One-time hot insurance tech Ethos poised to be one of the first tech IPO of the year

Ethos Technologies has priced its initial public offering and the expectation is that it will go public next Thursday, making it one of the first tech IPOs of the year. 

If it lands in its current price range of $18 to $20 a share, it will enter the day valued at $1.26 billion on the high end — raising $102.6 million for itself and about $108 million for its selling shareholders. Should investor interest be high, it could wind up pricing higher. That means a bigger valuation and more money raised.

The company, which offers software to sell life insurance, is backed by Sequoia, Accel, Alphabet’s venture capital arm GV, SoftBank, General Catalyst, and Heroic Ventures. Sequoia and Accel are not selling shares in the IPO, the company disclosed.

Ethos was a rising startup star in the pre-AI era, raising one big round after another through 2021. In its early rounds, it was backed by a who’s who of family offices, including those of Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Durant, and Jay-Z, the company told TechCrunch in 2018. 

It hit a $2.7 billion valuation in 2021 having raised $400 million by then, most of it that year. It completed only very small fundraises after that, PitchBook estimates.  

Ethos is profitable and has been for years, its IPO documents disclose. In the nine months ending September 30, Ethos generated almost $278 million in revenue and just under $46.6 million in net income.

Correction: The IPO date has been updated to reflect expected debut on Thursday, January 29.