Zelis Healthcare is preparing for a $17 billion initial public offering, according to information obtained by Business Insider, marking one of the most anticipated listings in the healthtech space in recent years.
The healthcare payments company has confidentially filed its S-1 with regulators and brought on Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as lead underwriters, four people with direct knowledge of the deal, quoted by BI, said. The firm, which helps hospitals and insurers streamline medical claims and electronic payments, is now generating nearly $1 billion in earnings before expenses such as taxes and interest, according to one of the sources.
While Zelis had initially been eyeing a listing in the fourth quarter of 2025, it has shifted its target to the first quarter of 2026. The delay aligns with a broader trend of healthcare IPO hopefuls pacing themselves for more favorable conditions, given the rocky market climate and stricter benchmarks public investors now demand.
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The company is backed primarily by Bain Capital and Parthenon Capital, two private equity giants that have spent years consolidating healthcare payments technology. Bain first invested in Zelis during its 2019 merger with payments platform RedCard, while Parthenon had backed both firms prior to their tie-up. That merger signaled Zelis’s pivot from medical claims management to becoming a central payments hub between health insurers and providers. Today, it services more than 750 payers, helping them manage reimbursements, claims, and provider communications.
A potential $17 billion valuation
Bloomberg reported in October 2024 that Mubadala Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and HarbourVest acquired a minority stake in Zelis at a valuation of about $17 billion. The deal underscored the surging interest in payment integrity and healthcare transaction platforms—an area that inefficiencies have long plagued.
The IPO buzz around Zelis comes in the wake of a sluggish year for healthtech debuts. Only a handful of names braved the market in 2025: physical therapy company Hinge Health in May, diabetes care company Omada Health in June, and AI-powered medtech firm Heartflow in August. Analysts said those listings tested investors’ appetite but highlighted how selective Wall Street has become.
By contrast, Zelis’s profitability sets it apart. Unlike venture-backed startups chasing growth, private equity-backed Zelis already throws off hundreds of millions in annual profit, making it more likely to meet the “high bar” public markets now demand. Bankers told BI in July that Zelis, with its stable business model and recurring revenue, represents the kind of defensive growth story investors are increasingly drawn to.
Waystar as a precedent
Many expect Zelis to follow a playbook similar to Waystar, another private equity-backed healthcare payments company that went public in June 2024. Waystar’s IPO valued it at $3.5 billion, but its shares have since risen roughly 85%, pushing its market cap above $7 billion. Analysts say that success shows Wall Street’s appetite for proven operators in healthcare finance.
Zelis is seen as a payments and communications backbone for insurers and hospitals, which is much broader than Waystar’s focus on hospital revenue cycles. It is believed that the difference could make its IPO an even more compelling story.
Zelis is also operating in a field where few large-scale private companies exist. New Mountain Capital’s Machinify, launched in early 2025 with a $5 billion valuation, is among the few players focusing on insurer-side health payments. Machinify moved aggressively this summer, acquiring public company Performant Healthcare for $670 million to strengthen its foothold in payment integrity.
Meanwhile, younger startups like Abridge are tackling adjacent problems, such as using AI to improve clinical documentation. But Zelis’s focus on the complex relationship between payers and providers places it in a less crowded—and highly lucrative—niche.
Since its 2019 merger with RedCard, Zelis has pursued bolt-on acquisitions to expand its offerings. Its most recent move came in June, when it acquired assets from Medxoom to build a mobile-first price transparency platform for health insurers, a feature that dovetails with new U.S. regulatory requirements around healthcare pricing.
IPO climate
The broader IPO market has shown sparks of revival, with tech names like Figma and Klarna delivering blockbuster debuts. Yet for healthcare companies, 2025 remained largely a waiting game. Analysts, bankers, and investors have suggested that 2026 could represent the first true “wave” of digital health IPOs since the sector’s pandemic-era boom.
Against that backdrop, Zelis stands out. With a proven profit engine, $17 billion valuation whispers, and heavyweight backers like Bain and Parthenon, the company appears primed to be one of the sector’s defining public listings in 2026.