Ethos Life Downsizes
The online life agency says it's responding to COVID-19-related economic uncertainty.
Ethos Technologies Inc. — an online life insurance agency that announced a $60 million round of financing in August 2019 — has reduced the size of its staff.
Former employees of the San Francisco-based company say the believe the layoffs may have affected about 14% of the company’s staff. The company has about 100 employees, according to employees and online directories, including Craft.co.
Ethos has issued a statement confirming that it has reduced the size of its staff.
“Ethos Life has recently reduced a minor portion of its workforce,” the company said in the statement. “While interest for life insurance has increased throughout the past few months, COVID-19 has also introduced economic uncertainty with future consumer demand and capital markets. As a result, we’ve decided to make the tough decision to reduce our operating costs, and unfortunately, have had to lay-off a small portion of our team.”
The company said it will support affected members.
“Ethos Life is confident in our future and we’re committed to our mission of protecting millions of families,” the company said.
(Related: LICONY President to Retire: Personnel Matters)
Ethos has offered at least some affected employees severance equal to one month’s pay, a former employee said.
Ethos has been selling term life insurance written by Banner Life Insurance Company, a Legal & General America company, through the web.
The company offers an accelerated underwriting process.
The funder list includes Google’s GV affiliate, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital and Accel.
— Read Web-Based Life Agency Raises $60 Million, on ThinkAdvisor.
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