Ethos Technologies has priced its initial public offering, which is expected to go public on Thursday, making it one of the first technology IPOs of the year.
If it lands at its current price range of $18 to $20 per share, it would be worth the day's all-time high of $1.26 billion, raising $102.6 million for itself and about $108 million for selling shareholders. If there is a lot of investor interest, the price could end up being higher. That means greater valuation and more funding.
The company, which provides 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 will not sell their shares in the IPO, the company said.
Ethos was an up-and-coming startup star in the pre-AI era, raising one big round after another by 2021. Early rounds were backed by family office insiders including Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Durant and Jay-Z, the company told TechCrunch in 2018.
It reached a valuation of $2.7 billion in 2021 and has raised $400 million so far, most of it in the same year. Since then, only a very small amount of funding has been completed, according to PitchBook estimates.
Ethos is profitable and has been for many years, IPO documents show. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Ethos generated revenue of approximately $278 million and net income of just under $46.6 million.