How Sequoia-backed Ethos reached the final public market while competitors fell short

Ethos Applied sciences, a San Francisco-essentially based thoroughly provider of instrument for promoting existence insurance coverage, debuted on the Nasdaq on Thursday. As one of many 365 days’s first most most considerable tech IPOs, the insurtech platform is being closely watched as a bellwether for the 2026 list cycle.

The firm and its promoting shareholders raised approximately $200 million within the offering, promoting 10.5 million shares at $19 every under the ticker image “LIFE” — one of many more on-the-nose decisions in latest memory. The name fits. Ethos runs a three-sided platform the build shoppers buy insurance policies on-line in 10 minutes without clinical checks. It says over 10,000 fair brokers expend its instrument to promote those insurance policies and that carriers cherish Neutral & Total The united states and John Hancock depend on it for underwriting and administrative products and services. Ethos itself isn’t an insurer — it’s a certified company incomes commissions on gross sales.

Although the firm’s stock closed its first day as a public firm at $16.85, 11% below its IPO trace of $19, Ethos co-founders Peter Colis and Lingke Wang gentle hold tons to hold an awfully good time, having grown the 10-365 days-ragged alternate to public-market scale.

“When we launched [the business], there were cherish eight or nine other existence insurtech startups that appeared very same to Ethos, with same Series A funding,” Colis told TechCrunch. “Over time, the mighty majority of those startups hold pivoted, been got at subscale, remain at subscale or long past out of alternate.”

For occasion, Policygenius, which raised over $250 million from consumers, in conjunction with KKR and Norwest Challenge Partners, became got by PE-backed Zinnia in 2023. Meanwhile, Effectively being IQ, a startup that secured better than $200 million from illustrious VCs cherish Andreessen Horowitz, filed for monetary catastrophe that identical 365 days.

Ethos, which has raised over $400 million in project capital, might well well hold without considerations succumbed to a same fate. As an different, the firm remained laser-centered on reaching profitability as the generation of cheap capital and simple fundraising got here to an cease in 2022. “Now not luminous what the continuing funding native weather would be, we purchased if truth be told desirous about guaranteeing profitability,” Colis said.

That monetary discipline transformed it loyal into a a success firm by mid-2023, in maintaining with its IPO documents. Since then, Ethos has also maintained a 365 days-over-365 days earnings explain fee of better than 50%. In the nine months ending September 30, 2025, the firm generated nearly $278 million in earnings and steady under $46.6 million in catch earnings.

Aloof, the firm ended its first day as a public firm with a market capitalization of about $1.1 billion, a valuation that’s tremendously below the $2.7 billion it garnered in its last non-public spherical led by SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund 2 in July 2021.

When asked why Ethos went public, Colis said that a tall piece of the motive became to bring “extra believe and credibility” to possible partners and purchasers. He explained that due to many most most considerable insurance coverage carriers are over a century ragged, being publicly traded alerts the firm’s staying strength.

The finest outdoors shareholders of Ethos consist of illustrious companies, in conjunction with Sequoia, Accel, Google’s project arm GV, and SoftBank, as successfully as Total Catalyst and Heroic Ventures. Sequoia and Accel did now not promote shares within the IPO, the firm disclosed.

Scrutinize Bio