While the timing of global insurance brokerage and fintech company Acrisure LLC’s plan to go public remains unknown, observers say a look at the firm’s history can provide clues about its future.
Grand Rapids-based Acrisure was co-founded in 2005 by chair and CEO Greg Williams and Ricky Norris, a partner who remains a shareholder in the business. The company generated $4.5 billion in sales in 2023, up from $38 million in 2013, and is on track to surpass $5 billion this year. The firm also reached a valuation of nearly $27 billion last year.
Acrisure has made no secret of its plans to become a publicly traded company since Bloomberg reported in June 2023 that the firm was interviewing banks about an initial public offering.
“We’re certainly trending in the right direction, and we’re on the right trajectory,” Williams told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business in May at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
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Paul Mudde, an associate professor at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business who teaches business and corporate strategy, said to make a public play, companies need a strong equity and stock market for IPOs. They also need brand and market recognition to attract institutional investors, product offerings that align with market demand, and stable revenue performance, he said.
Mudde thinks the stars appear aligned for Acrisure at the moment on the first consideration, with the number of U.S. IPOs and proceeds reportedly up year over year by about 27% and 75%, respectively. The 80 or so IPOs filed so far this year in the U.S. included two companies from southeast Michigan. Birmingham-based OneStream launched on the Nasdaq on July 24, raising about $490 million and achieving a $6 billion valuation after one day. Novi-based Lineage debuted on the Nasdaq the following day, raising $4.4 billion and achieving a $19 billion market valuation on July 25.
Mudde said Acrisure’s performance, market position, branding and offerings also make it seem well-positioned for an IPO.
“They’ve had very steady growth through acquisition, they’ve made themselves into a pretty powerful competitor in the insurance industry, and there doesn’t seem to be any wall that they’re going to hit with their growth,” Mudde said. “For an IPO, that’s really good.”
Going public while remaining headquartered in Grand Rapids could create more local wealth, add jobs and bolster the real estate market as the company continues to expand its headcount, Mudde added.
“There’s going to be some people who get really rich, and they could put that money to work in the local area,” he said.
As Acrisure continues its aggressive growth plan, here’s a breakdown of how the company got to where it is today.
What does Acrisure do?
Through hundreds of agencies across the U.S. and in 20 other countries, Acrisure sells personal insurance, such as home, auto and life, and business insurance including general, commercial and professional liability, owner’s insurance and employee benefits. The company also has capabilities beyond insurance, including cybersecurity services and mortgage origination.
In 2020, Acrisure began to fast-track a strategy to leverage artificial intelligence in its sales and marketing, something none of its competitors had done at the time. It acquired the insurance platform of the AI company Tulco for $400 million that year. Acrisure then brought Tulco’s executive vice president Matt Marolda on board as chief innovation officer. He built an AI team that now numbers hundreds of employees and has exponentially increased web traffic, lead generation and sales conversion.
Acrisure’s approach to using AI to conduct sales is “years ahead” of other companies that consider themselves competitors, Williams told Crain’s in May.
Who leads the company?
Williams is chair, CEO and a minority shareholder. Norris is “involved,” but not on the leadership team anymore, according to Chief Communications Officer Elliott Bundy.
The company recently hired John Tuttle of the New York Stock Exchange as its first president, effective Sept. 1. Just days before that announcement, Acrisure added Aaron Miller, previous head of financial services in the private equities department at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, as CFO.
Sozon Vatikiotis is COO and chief administrative officer. Marolda is CIO and chief marketing officer. Former CFO Jason DeYonker will soon transition to chief acquisitions officer, and Ryan Foley is chief legal officer. Additionally, Grahame Millwater is vice chair of international and global markets.
Who has backed it?
Currently, Acrisure’s three largest institutional investors are:
- BDT & MSD, a Chicago- and New York-based merchant banking firm;
- a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority; and
- Guggenheim Investments, a New York- and Chicago-based global asset management and investment advisory firm.
Past private equity backers that have since sold their stakes include San Francisco-based Genstar Capital and Boston-based Abry Partners.
How’d it get to where it is?
Williams characterizes the company as having had at least two distinct growth periods: an “experimental phase” proving its concept from 2005 to 2012, then a national and international growth phase from 2013 to present.
In the latter phase, Acrisure launched an ambitious acquisitions strategy in 2013, developed its AI, and began marketing itself with naming rights deals and digital ad buys in 2022 to prepare for an IPO.
According to annual insurance industry M&A tracking by Optis Partners, Acrisure since 2013 has acquired at least 823 agencies, although Bundy said the actual total is higher because some of the deals weren’t publicly reported. Its peak year for acquisitions, according to Optis, was 2021, with 122 deals that year. In preparation for the IPO, the company pulled back on M&A last year, closing just 36 deals. That was its smallest number of acquisitions closed in a single year since 2014.
GVSU’s Mudde said slowing M&A ahead of going public is not uncommon, as integrations are labor-intensive and generally require the attention of the same finance team that would lead an IPO.
He said going public would fuel the company’s ability to continue acquiring more agencies, as there’s still plenty of opportunity for consolidation in the industry.
How did it become a recognized brand?
Aware that some of the agencies it acquired had stronger branding than Acrisure, the company launched its first large-scale marketing push in 2022. It started with a naming rights deal for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home stadium, which formerly was named Heinz Field and is now called Acrisure Stadium.
In February 2022, the company signed a three-year contract to become a “pillar partner” for Van Andel Arena and the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.
That year, it also inked a naming rights deal for Acrisure Arena, the new ice hockey arena and events space in Palm Springs, Calif., and took over naming rights for the entrance lobby at UBS Arena, home of the NHL’s New York Islanders. It’s now called the Acrisure Great Hall.
Locally, in September 2023 the company made a $30 million donation to secure the naming rights for Acrisure Amphitheater, the downtown Grand Rapids outdoor entertainment venue that broke ground this year.
Meanwhile, in May 2023, the company announced it would begin rebranding all of the local agencies it owns under the Acrisure name and image. This represented a departure from its longtime strategy of preserving local agencies’ identities, in favor of using a “central voice” to speak to clients and the public, the company said at the time.
In addition, the company used AI to launch digital ads that generated more than 1 billion impressions last year and another 1 billion more this year as of May, Williams previously said.
When will it go public?
Williams said in May to expect an IPO “sooner as opposed to later,” and that the company is busy laying the groundwork for it.
Since then, Bundy and Williams have said a few times that they are not ready to declare a specific timeline. Michigan-based strategists told Crain’s that Acrisure’s hiring of new executives is a good signal the IPO is coming soon. The new CFO and president will come onboard next month.
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Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.