Ethos Raises $22.75M From a16z for Expert Network With Voice Onboarding

Ethos, a platform that connects experts (doctors, lawyers, consultants, top executives) with companies, investors, and journalists, has raised $22.75 million from Andreessen Horowitz in a new funding round. Key news: the company has implemented voice onboarding for experts and is now connecting 35 thousand specialists per week.

How Ethos Works

Ethos is a B2B marketplace where companies order expert consultations on specific questions. A doctor advises on rare diagnoses, a lawyer navigates new legislation, a CFO of an international corporation gives advice to a startup about investment structure. Previously, this was manual work: calling universities, finding consulting firms, negotiating with recruitment agencies. Each search took days or weeks. Ethos automates the process: an expert creates a profile, a client selects the right person, conducts a consultation via video call or chat. The platform earns a commission — a percentage of each consultation hour. There are three main client types: corporations (fintech, medtech, consulting), investors who validate ideas before investing, and newsrooms and magazine editorial teams.

Voice Onboarding Simplifies Registration

Instead of filling out a long text form, a new expert simply speaks into a microphone. The system recognizes speech, extracts key data (specialty, years of experience, region, languages), structures the information — and the profile is ready for publication. Why does this work?

People speak faster than they write. Speech is more natural; people are willing to spend two minutes dictating but not filling out a form. Plus, voice interface opens access to experts for whom writing in English is difficult: the system recognizes context, doesn't require perfect grammar or punctuation.

The results are impressive: 35 thousand new experts per week. That's five thousand people per day. At this rate, the platform could add almost 1.

8 million profiles per year.

Why Mega-fund a16z Invested

$22.75 million is a serious round for a B2B platform. Andreessen Horowitz doesn't invest in projects without proof of the model. This means Ethos demonstrated:

• Business model works — companies pay for expert consultations
• Demand is real — sufficient clients and specialists on the platform
• Growth is sustainable — 35K experts per week is not a spike but a constant
• Technology is proven — voice onboarding truly simplifies registration

This market is strategic for investors. In the wave of AI, they're looking for B2B platforms where artificial intelligence + human expertise create real value. Ethos is a typical example: AI recognizes voice, humans provide consultation.

What It Means

Platforms for finding experts are becoming critical infrastructure. Tomorrow, any company facing a non-standard question will order a consultation through Ethos just as today it searches for a freelancer on Upwork. Voice onboarding is a signal about the future: interfaces are simplifying, people communicate with systems more naturally, and this lowers the barrier to entry for everyone.