Ethos raises $22.75M from a16z for an expert network with voice onboarding

Ethos has raised $22.75 million from Andreessen Horowitz in a new funding round. The platform connects experts, including doctors, lawyers, consultants and senior executives, with companies, investors and journalists. The headline: Ethos has rolled out voice onboarding for experts and now brings on 35,000 specialists a week.

How the platform works

Ethos is a B2B marketplace where companies book expert consultations on one-off questions. A doctor advises on rare diagnoses, a lawyer breaks down new legislation, or the CFO of a multinational advises a startup on how to structure an investment.

This used to be real legwork: calling universities, tracking down consulting firms, negotiating with recruiting agencies. Each search took days or weeks. Ethos automates the process. An expert creates a profile, the client picks the right person, and the consultation happens over video call or chat.

The platform makes money on commission, taking a percentage of every consultation hour. It has three main types of clients: corporations (fintech, medtech, consulting), investors vetting an idea before committing money, and newspaper and magazine newsrooms.

Voice onboarding simplifies sign-up

Instead of filling out a long text form, a new expert simply talks into a microphone. The system transcribes the speech, extracts key details (specialty, years of experience, region, languages), structures the information, and the profile is ready to publish.

Why does this work? People speak faster than they type. Speech feels more natural, and people are willing to spend two minutes dictating but not filling out a questionnaire. Voice also opens the door to experts who struggle to write in English: the system understands context and does not require perfect grammar or punctuation.

The results are impressive: 35,000 new experts a week, or 5,000 people a day. At that pace, the platform could add nearly 1.8 million profiles in a year.

Why the a16z megafund invested

$22.75 million is a serious round for a B2B platform. Andreessen Horowitz does not invest in projects without proof that the model works. That means Ethos has shown that:

• The business model works — companies pay for expert consultations
• Demand is real — the platform has enough clients and specialists
• Growth is sustainable — 35K experts a week is a constant, not a spike
• The technology is proven — voice onboarding genuinely makes sign-up easier

This market is strategic for investors. Riding the AI wave, they are looking for B2B platforms where artificial intelligence plus human expertise creates real value. Ethos is a textbook example: AI recognizes the voice, a human delivers the consultation.

What it means

Expert-finding platforms are becoming critical infrastructure. Tomorrow, any company facing an unusual question will book a consultation through Ethos the same way it hires a freelancer on Upwork today.

Voice onboarding is a signal of where things are heading: interfaces are getting simpler, people interact with systems more naturally, and that lowers the barrier to entry for everyone.