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

Ethos Technologies, a San Francisco–based company that builds software for selling life insurance, made its public debut on the Nasdaq on Thursday. As one of the first notable technology IPOs of the year, the listing is being closely watched as an early indicator of how the 2026 public markets cycle may shape up for venture-backed companies.

The company and its selling shareholders raised roughly $200 million in the offering, selling 10.5 million shares at $19 apiece under the ticker symbol “LIFE.” The branding is deliberate. Ethos operates a three-sided platform that allows consumers to purchase life insurance policies online in about 10 minutes, without medical exams. More than 10,000 independent agents use its software to sell policies. At the same time, insurance carriers such as Legal & General America and John Hancock rely on the platform for underwriting and administrative services. Ethos itself is not an insurer; it operates as a licensed agency and earns commissions on policy sales.

Although Ethos shares closed their first trading day at $16.85 — about 11% below the IPO price — the milestone still marks a significant achievement for co-founders Peter Colis and Lingke Wang, who have spent a decade building the business to the scale required for public markets.

“When we launched the business, there were probably eight or nine other life insurtech startups that looked very similar to Ethos, with similar Series A funding,” Colis told TechCrunch. “Over time, the vast majority of those startups have pivoted, been acquired at subscale, remained at subscale, or gone out of business.”

Several once-prominent peers illustrate that contrast. Policygenius, which raised more than $250 million from investors including KKR and Norwest Venture Partners, was acquired by private-equity-backed Zinnia in 2023. Health IQ, another insurtech startup that raised more than $200 million from well-known venture firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, filed for bankruptcy that same year.

Ethos, which has raised more than $400 million in venture funding, could have followed a similar path. Instead, the company shifted its priorities as the era of abundant capital and easy fundraising ended in 2022. “Not knowing what the ongoing funding climate would be, we got really serious about ensuring profitability,” Colis said.

That focus paid off. According to its IPO filings, Ethos became profitable by mid-2023 and has since maintained year-over-year revenue growth of more than 50%. In the nine months ending September 30, 2025, the company reported nearly $278 million in revenue and just under $46.6 million in net income.

Even so, the public markets have assigned Ethos a more modest valuation than it commanded privately. By the end of its first trading day, the company’s market capitalisation stood at around $1.1 billion, well below the $2.7 billion valuation it achieved in its last private funding round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in July 2021.

Colis said the decision to go public was driven in part by a desire to add credibility with partners and customers. Many of the insurance carriers Ethos works with are more than a century old, and being publicly traded helps signal long-term stability. “It brings additional trust and credibility,” he said.

Ethos’ largest outside shareholders include Sequoia, Accel, Google’s venture arm GV, SoftBank, General Catalyst, and Heroic Ventures. The company disclosed that both Sequoia and Accel chose not to sell shares in the IPO, underscoring continued support from its early backers even as Ethos begins its life as a public company.