One-time hot insurance technology company Ethos is gearing up to be the first technology IPO of the year

Ethos Technologies has priced its initial public offering and is expected to go public on Thursday, making it one of the first technology IPOs this year.

If it landed in the current price range of $18 to $20 per share, it would enter the day worth $1.26 billion at the cap — raising $102.6 million for itself and about $108 million for its selling shareholders. If investor interest is high, this could cause prices to rise. This means a higher valuation and more money raised.

The company, which offers software to sell life insurance, is backed by Sequoia, Accel, GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet, SoftBank, General Catalyst, and Heroic Ventures. Sequoia and Accel will not sell shares in the IPO, the company revealed.

Ethos was a rising star in the pre-AI era, taking one big round after another through 2021. In its early rounds, it was backed by bigwigs at family offices, including those of Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Durant, and Jay-Z, the company told TechCrunch in 2018.

It reached $2.7 billion in 2021 after raising $400 million by then, most of it that year. Only very small fundraising operations were completed after that, according to PitchBook estimates.

Ethos is profitable and has been for years, IPO documents reveal. In the nine months ended September 30, Ethos generated approximately $278 million in revenue and just under $46.6 million in net income.