Fortitude Re, a Bermuda-based reinsurer, said on September 28, 2026 that it had acquired substantially all of the assets of Dayforward, a US insurance technology company founded in 2020. The price and other financial terms were not disclosed.
The assets were bought through a newly formed entity that will be renamed Fortitude Life and will operate as a Fortitude Re subsidiary. Dayforward's team will continue to lead the business.
The purchase includes Dayforward's technology platform, distribution agreements, intellectual property, licensed insurance agency and employees. It does not include Dayforward's insurance entities or the legacy policies and liabilities tied to them. Willkie Farr & Gallagher advised Fortitude Re.
What Dayforward built
Dayforward started out selling life insurance directly to consumers and acquired a licensed insurance carrier to do so, according to the insurance trade publication Coverager. It later introduced an enterprise offering for insurance carriers and, in 2025, closed its consumer business.
By the time of the sale its main product was a proprietary platform for companies that distribute annuities. Fortitude Re said the software covers the whole life of a policy: onboarding sales agents, processing applications, issuing policies, paying commissions and servicing policies once they are in force.
That split explains the shape of the deal. Fortitude Re is taking the software, the agency and the relationships with distribution partners, while the regulated insurance companies and the risk on the old book stay outside the transaction.
“We founded Dayforward to modernize how annuities are issued, administered and delivered to consumers. Joining Fortitude Re gives us the capital foundation and institutional expertise to scale that vision at a pace we could not have achieved on our own.”
Why Fortitude Re is buying
Fortitude Re describes itself as a global reinsurer with more than $100 billion in reserves. It is backed by investors including Carlyle and T&D Insurance Group, and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Fortitude Re said the acquisition broadens its capabilities in insurance technology, distribution and policy administration, so it can serve clients across more insurance channels. In practice it gives a firm that has mainly worked with other insurers its own technology for originating and servicing annuity business.
Alon Neches, Fortitude Re's chief executive, said Dayforward's technology complements Fortitude Re's underwriting, asset-liability management and investment expertise, and that the combination would strengthen its ability to originate and manage business in new ways.
Neches added that Fortitude Re wants to pair Dayforward's entrepreneurial culture and digital tools with its own capital and insurance expertise, while keeping the disciplined approach that has guided the reinsurer's growth. The company said the move is part of a long-term strategy to build capabilities that support clients across a broad range of insurance channels, and that it remains committed to its institutional reinsurance clients as it extends tailored products to a wider range of partners and policyholders.
The founders and the funding
Dayforward had publicly disclosed $45 million in funding, Coverager reported. The announcement did not name its investors, and Dayforward's headcount was not disclosed.
Aaron Shapiro, Dayforward's chief executive, said the founders built the company to modernise how annuities are issued, administered and delivered to consumers, and that joining Fortitude Re would let it grow faster than it could have alone.
Shapiro also said Fortitude Re's approach to risk management and its long-term commitment to policyholders closely matched the way Dayforward had built its business. For a company that had already wound down its consumer operations, the sale gives its platform and team a well-capitalised owner without taking on the insurance liabilities it left behind.
What happens to customers
Distribution partners using Dayforward's platform move with it to Fortitude Life, since their agreements are among the assets being transferred. Holders of policies issued by Dayforward's insurance entities are not part of the deal, because those entities and their liabilities were excluded.
Fortitude Re did not say when the renaming to Fortitude Life will take effect or whether the Dayforward brand will continue to be used with partners.
