London-based startup Ethos has successfully closed a $22.75 million Series A funding round, signaling a major shift in how companies source specialized professional knowledge. The investment, led by a16z with participation from General Catalyst, XTX Markets, Evantic Capital, and Common Magic, will fuel the company’s efforts to modernize the traditional expert network model through advanced artificial intelligence.

Unlike legacy platforms that rely on static job titles and basic profile forms, Ethos utilizes a proprietary voice-powered onboarding process. By conducting AI-driven interviews, the platform captures deeper, nuanced data about an expert’s specific capabilities, academic contributions, and sub-specializations that are often missed by conventional search filters. This allows organizations to execute highly complex queries, such as identifying professionals with specific experience in finance automation or specialized drug development, with significantly higher precision.

Founded in 2024 by James Lo and Daniel Mankowitz, the company aims to bridge the gap between the human economy and the emerging agent economy. By synthesizing voice-extracted insights with public data from blogs, academic papers, and professional networks, Ethos creates a dynamic knowledge graph. The platform is already gaining traction among top-tier hedge funds, private equity firms, and AI research labs, with approximately 35,000 new experts joining the network weekly.

As the company scales, it intends to maintain a lean operational structure while capitalizing on the growing demand from AI labs seeking to map human expertise for model training and strategic feedback. With an eight-figure annualized revenue trajectory, Ethos is positioning itself as a critical infrastructure layer for businesses that require more than just a resume to solve complex, high-stakes problems.

Key Takeaways

• Ethos raised $22.75 million in Series A funding to disrupt the expert network industry using AI-powered voice onboarding.
• The platform replaces traditional, title-based matching with deep-data extraction, allowing for highly specific professional searches.
• The startup is currently seeing rapid growth, with 35,000 new experts joining the network every week and significant adoption by hedge funds and AI labs.

Editor’s Analysis & Impact

The expert network industry has long been stagnant, relying on manual, keyword-heavy processes that often fail to capture the true depth of a professional’s skill set. Ethos represents a significant evolution by treating human expertise as a dynamic data set rather than a static profile. By leveraging voice AI, the company solves the ‘documentation problem’—where experts struggle to articulate their value in writing—thereby creating a more accurate and searchable knowledge graph. This approach is particularly timely as AI labs and enterprise firms race to map human intelligence for model development. If Ethos can maintain its growth rate and data quality, it is well-positioned to displace legacy incumbents like GLG and AlphaSights, potentially becoming the primary interface for high-level corporate consulting and specialized talent acquisition in the coming years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How does Ethos differ from traditional expert networks like LinkedIn or GLG?
A: Traditional networks rely on static job titles and user-filled forms. Ethos uses AI-driven voice interviews to extract deeper, more specific details about an expert's capabilities, allowing for more precise matching with client needs.

Q: Who are the primary users of the Ethos platform?
A: Ethos serves high-level clients including hedge funds, private equity firms, enterprise consulting groups, and foundational AI labs that require specialized human expertise for projects and model training.