By Keira Wingate

Aug 18 - (The Insurer) - A wave of insurance companies has tapped the public markets this year, with further IPOs expected, thanks to better equity conditions despite questions on how sustainable the momentum will be.

Five insurance companies have gone public so far this year. The most recent was Accelerant on July 24, which followed the IPOs of Florida-based carrier Slide Insurance on June 18, E&S carrier Ategrity on June 12 and Bermudian (re)insurer Aspen and Florida insurer American Integrity, both of which went public on May 8.

More insurance industry companies are likely to follow.

One could be HCI-owned technology platform Exzeo, which earlier this month privately filed an S-1 registration statement ahead of a potential IPO.

The Insurer's previous reporting has also linked companies such as Ascot, Coalition and Core Specialty as being potential IPO candidates.

In addition, Acrisure, which secured a $2.1 billion capital raise led by Bain Capital in May this year, has been public in its ambitions to eventually pursue an IPO after being mooted as a likely candidate for the last few years.

Robert Hartwig, professor of finance and insurance at the University of South Carolina, noted that the uptick in insurance listings this year reflects a broader revival in IPO activity across sectors, rather than insurance-specific dynamics.

“The surge in insurance IPOs has less to do with the specifics of the insurance industry and more to do with a sharp increase in IPO activity broadly across many industries,” he said. “Markets are soaring and in a ‘risk-on model,’ which benefits IPO activity across the board.”

According to Renaissance Capital, there were 97 U.S. IPOs through the first half of 2025, compared to 69 in the first half of 2024 and 53 in the first half of 2023. As of August 19, that figure was 137 IPOs this year.

Hartwig said the five insurance IPOs this year have received an underwhelming market reception, underperforming both the S&P 500 and a broader IPO index. As of mid-August, he noted, Slide shares were down 13.6% from their IPO price, while Ategrity had fallen 22.3%. American Integrity and Accelerant were modest gainers, up 4% and 5%, respectively.

On the other hand, Andy Mertz, head of equity capital markets at Citizens, highlighted that until the pushback that occurred the week of August 4, many of this year’s insurance IPOs had traded well.

“Slide was trading about 9% below issue price,” he said in an interview with The Insurer on August 14. “Aspen was right around its IPO price, American Integrity was up 10%, Ategrity was up 22% and Accelerant was up 37%. Net deals are still performing well and they all performed well out of the gate.”

Mertz, whose company has served as an underwriter on eight of the last 10 insurance IPOs, noted that the sector has experienced a sharp increase in activity since 2023. Ten insurance companies have floated in the U.S. over the past three years, including Skyward, Fidelis and Hamilton in 2023, Bowhead and TWFG in 2024 and the cluster of five in 2025.

He credited better pricing, improved combined ratios and stabilizing reinsurance costs with making insurers attractive IPO candidates.

“It’s been a good backdrop for insurance companies to go public,” Mertz said.

Looking ahead, Hartwig said that more IPOs are likely in the second half of the year, particularly with the Federal Reserve expected to cut rates multiple times before the end of the year.

Even so, he cautioned that “P&C insurance indexes are underperforming the S&P, suggesting that the sector may be falling out of favor with investors. This is, in part, because P&C market conditions, based on pricing trends, are weakening relative to the past few years.”

Mertz described a healthy backlog of companies in the pipeline, spanning carriers, distribution firms, fintech platforms and cyber specialists. He suggested that distribution companies are underrepresented among recent listings and may be next in line, while cyber-focused carriers could also test the market.

On insurtech, Mertz was skeptical of the label, but noted that newer entrants, such as Accelerant, demonstrate how tech-enabled models can succeed.

“InsurTech 1.0, I don’t think anyone wants to get compared to them anymore,” he said, making a distinction between app-based players.

Both Mertz and Hartwig agreed that deal flow depends on performance.

As Mertz put it: “As long as they keep performing and the underlying business trends keep doing well, then there’s a public market for them.”