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A life insurance web broker that started out with funding from Robert Downey Jr. may soon raise $100 million through an initial public offering.
Ethos Technologies, a company based in San Francisco, wants to hold the IPO to create a public market for its stock and add financial flexibility, according to a draft IPO registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Peter Colis and Lingke Wang, the co-founders of Ethos, said the IPO will help Ethos and affiliated life insurance agents protect more families.
"Every policy we help issue is a promise that a child's education, a mortgage, or a retirement plan will still stand if the unthinkable happens," Colis and Wang wrote in a letter to investors.
What it means: For advisors, the IPO could be a chance to get details about the life insurance distribution machinery.
Financing: Ethos started up in 2018 with $11.5 million in funding from a list of investors that included Sequoia Capital and Will Smith's Smith Family Circle, as well as Downey's Downey Ventures.
The top underwriters for the proposed IPO are Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.
Relationships: Ethos handles life insurance underwriting administration and policy administration as well as sales. It distributes policies through a network of 10,000 agents as well as selling policies directly to consumers.
The company offers term life from Ameritas, John Hancock, Legal & General, TruState and Protective; whole life from TruStage; indexed universal life from Ameritas; and its own will drafting services.
Performance: Ethos reported $31 million in net income for the first half of the year on $184 million in revenue, compared with $19 million in net income on $119 million in revenue for the first half of 2024.
Customer value: Ethos has sold 450,000 policies. It values its long-term commission receivables at $195.3 million, or $434 per activated policy.
The average revenue per policy sold in 2024 was $1,997.
The future: Ethos said it hopes to start selling products such as variable universal life and fixed indexed annuities.
Credit: Adobe Stock
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