Minneapolis' Foxo Technologies makes deal to become a public company

Foxo Technologies — a Minneapolis biotech company that develops predictive models for researchers and insurers that can be applied toward life span and wellness analysis — is going public through a merger with a publicly traded blank check company. It eventually wants to introduce its own life insurance product.

The merger with Delwinds Insurance Acquisition Corp., based in Houston, is expected to close sometime in the second quarter and will allow the company to expand its products and services throughout the life insurance industry, the companies said.

The merger is expected to raise $224 million in total gross cash proceeds, including up to $201 million of cash held in Delwinds' trust account, the companies said. Delwinds raised $201 million through its initial public offering in 2020.

"Our goal is to modernize life insurance by making advances in longevity science fundamental to the product itself," Jon Sabes, Foxo's founder and CEO, said in a statement. "This transaction is transformative in our effort to support the industry's effort to modernize in the face of accelerating advances in science and technology to reach more consumers at a time when interest in life insurance is at all-time highs."

Per the company's pro forma valuation, at $10 per share the merged company would have an estimated equity value of $563 million and total enterprise value of $369 million.

Foxo is expected to become publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FOXO.

Foxo Technologies applies machine learning to its non-invasive saliva-based technology for the diagnosis and prognosis of a person's health to help insurers evaluate and predict the risks involved when insuring people. The company's epigenetic biomarkers track people's health patterns, including the use of tobacco or alcohol, but also exercising.

Foxo also intends to launch its own line of life insurance products, where people can apply online for coverage up to $1 million, under its Foxo Life brand. In 2021, Foxo raised $10 million to purchase Memorial Life Insurance Co. of America, which has been renamed Foxo Life.

"Foxo is aiming to modernize the life insurance industry with an unbending and disruptive vision of science and technology," Andrew Poole, chairman and CEO of Delwinds, said in a statement. "Foxo will provide value to policy holders that goes beyond mortality coverage and introduces step-change underwriting technology."

Along with the merger with Delwinds, Foxo's leadership also announced the company has secured a $40 million equity line of credit through CF Principal Investments.

Since its founding in 2016, Foxo, formerly known as Life Epigenetics, has raised a total of $40 million from private investors. Foxo's existing shareholders are rolling 100% of their equity into the merged company.

While it is early into the new year, Foxo is one of a few Minnesota companies to file for an initial public offering in 2022. In January, Southwest Minnesota-based Tru Shrimp, an indoor shrimp farm company, announced its plans to go public to help it rapidly increase production, making it the state's first IPO registration of 2022.

Last year, eight companies from Minnesota filed to go public, the most in more than two decades.