Ethos Technologies just became one of 2026's first major tech IPOs, and the insurtech's debut tells a story of survival. The San Francisco-based life insurance platform raised $200 million going public on Nasdaq Thursday, closing at a $1.1 billion valuation - nearly 60% below its 2021 peak. But co-founders Peter Colis and Lingke Wang have something most insurtech rivals don't: profitability, 50% revenue growth, and a path forward while competitors like Policygenius got acquired and Health IQ filed for bankruptcy.
Ethos Technologies became one of the first major tech companies to test the 2026 public markets Thursday, and the insurtech platform's debut is already being watched as a bellwether for this year's IPO cycle. The company raised approximately $200 million selling 10.5 million shares at $19 each on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "LIFE" - one of the more fitting choices in recent memory.
But the first-day pop never materialized. Ethos closed at $16.85, down 11% from its IPO price, giving the San Francisco-based company a market capitalization of roughly $1.1 billion. That's a steep markdown from the $2.7 billion valuation it commanded when SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led its last private round in July 2021, according to its SEC filings.
Yet co-founders Peter Colis and Lingke Wang have plenty to celebrate. They've built a 10-year-old business that survived an insurtech shakeout while most competitors fell away. "When we launched [the business], there were like 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, remain at subscale or gone out of business."
