Ethnio
Ethnio is a privately held San Francisco-based SaaS company providing a UX research participant management CRM — covering recruiting, screening, scheduling, surveys, and global incentive payments — used by enterprise and mid-market research operations teams.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Ethnio does
Ethnio is a privately held software company that provides a UX research participant management platform — described by the company as a "Research CRM" — used by enterprise and mid-market research operations teams. The platform consolidates panel management, screening, consent tracking, web and mobile intercepts (with 30+ targeting variables), automated scheduling, branded surveys, study management, and global incentive payments in over 140 countries via 80+ payment methods. Notable technical infrastructure includes a 99.95% monthly uptime SLA, sub-15ms average server response time on screeners, SAML 2.0 SSO integration with major identity providers (Okta, Microsoft Entra, ADFS, PingFederate, OneLogin, Google), and an Enterprise API with OAuth 2.0/JWT authentication for compliance automation.
Ethnio serves UX researchers, research operations, program managers, and designers across verticals including technology, financial services, automotive, education, insurance, healthcare and nonprofit. Named enterprise customers include Intuit, Toyota, CarMax, Cengage, Udemy, The Zebra, SkillShare, Mule Design, and Alzheimer's Research. The company operates a hybrid go-to-market combining a product-led self-serve free trial with enterprise field sales for larger deployments, and monetizes through seat-based subscription licenses billed monthly, with invoice billing available for enterprise customers. Distribution is global, with the company actively marketing in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Africa.
The firm is led by CEO Nate Bolt, was founded around 2015, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California (with a Los Angeles mailing reference also noted in firmographic data). Ethnio holds SOC 2 Type II certification and is GDPR, CCPA, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, COPPA, and HIPAA-ready compliant. No external funding rounds or institutional investors are disclosed in available sources, indicating a bootstrapped operating model despite serving Fortune-class enterprise customers with as few as 1–10 employees.
Ethnio firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ethnio
- Legal name
- Ethnio, Inc.
- Website
- https://ethn.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Ethnio is a privately held San Francisco-based SaaS company providing a UX research participant management CRM — covering recruiting, screening, scheduling, surveys, and global incentive payments — used by enterprise and mid-market research operations teams.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ethnio industry classification
Industry- Product category
- UX Research Operations Software
- NAICS
- Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)
- SIC
- Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Qualitative Research (Focus Groups, IDIs, Ethnography) (MPAAALAE)
Keywords
Where Ethnio is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Ethnio business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription Software Licenses: Seat-based team accounts for research teams, with SSO-enabled enterprise licenses. Payments via invoice or credit card.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Enterprise plans with SSO, training, and advanced features |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Ethnio product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ethnio provides a unified UX research participant management platform that enables research operations and product teams to recruit, screen, schedule, survey, and pay research participants at scale. Its offering includes a research-specific CRM, web and mobile intercepts, a screener and survey builder, automated research scheduling with calendar integrations, global incentive payments across 140+ countries, and enterprise features such as SSO, API access, and compliance tooling.
Product overview
Ethnio is a comprehensive UX research participant management platform providing tools for recruiting, screening, and managing research participants. The product suite is organized into three main categories: recruitment tools (Panel Management, Screeners, Consent, Intercepts), research management (Scheduling, Surveys, Study Management, Participant Management), and operations tools (Teams, AI Localization, Incentives). Core platform features include web and mobile intercepts with 30+ targeting variables, automated scheduling with calendar integrations (Zoom, Outlook, Google Calendar), branded survey creation, and global incentive payments across 140+ countries with 80+ payment methods. Enterprise plans add Teams collaboration and AI-powered localization features.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Panel Management
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduce participant recruitment time with live site intercepts
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Ethnio
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments11 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Ethnio technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration16 records
AI capability2 records
Feature7 records
Ethnio partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators4 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Ethnio competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- SurveyMonkey: SurveyMonkey is a broad survey and market research platform that integrates with Ethnio but also competes with its survey creation and panel capabilities within a much larger enterprise and prosumer portfolio.
- Qualtrics: Qualtrics is a broad experience management platform with extensive survey and research operations capabilities, integrating with Ethnio while also competing with its survey and panel features as part of a much wider portfolio.
Direct peers
- Respondent.io: Respondent.io operates a participant recruitment platform for market research and UX research, directly overlapping with Ethnio's screener and panel offerings for recruiting qualified participants for B2B and consumer studies.
- Maze: Maze offers a continuous research platform with participant recruitment, prototype testing, and surveys for product teams, overlapping with Ethnio's intercepts, surveys, and panel management for product-led research operations.
- Prolific: Prolific is a research participant platform with a large vetted pool for academic and commercial research, directly comparable to Ethnio's panel management and global incentive payment capabilities.
- Dscout: Dscout provides a research platform with a managed participant panel and diary-study tooling, competing with Ethnio in panel management, participant recruitment, and enterprise UX research operations.
- User Interviews: User Interviews is a participant recruitment marketplace focused on connecting UX researchers with vetted participants, competing directly with Ethnio's panel management and screener capabilities for self-serve and mid-market research teams.
- UserTesting: UserTesting is a leading platform for user research and participant feedback, directly competing with Ethnio in UX research participant recruitment, video-based usability testing, and insights capture for enterprise research teams.
Emerging players
- RecruitEm: RecruitEm is a participant recruitment tool for UX researchers focused on screening and scheduling, an emerging niche competitor with partial overlap to Ethnio's screener and scheduling workflow.
Regional players
- Testlio: Testlio provides a software testing and participant platform with global reach, adjacent to Ethnio's research participant operations though focused more on QA testing than UX research recruitment.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Ethnio social profiles
Digital presenceEthnio compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance6 records
Ethnio financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ethnio leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Ethnio funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ethnio M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ethnio
What does Ethnio do?
Ethnio provides a unified UX research participant management platform that enables research operations and product teams to recruit, screen, schedule, survey, and pay research participants at scale. Its offering includes a research-specific CRM, web and mobile intercepts, a screener and survey builder, automated research scheduling with calendar integrations, global incentive payments across 140+ countries, and enterprise features such as SSO, API access, and compliance tooling.
Is Ethnio a public or private company?
Ethnio is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Ethnio founded?
Ethnio was founded in 2015. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Ethnio based?
Ethnio is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Ethnio make money?
One revenue line is on record: subscription Software Licenses.
Who are Ethnio's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics. Direct peers are Respondent.io, Maze, Prolific, Dscout, User Interviews and UserTesting. RecruitEm is listed as an emerging player. Testlio is listed as a regional player.
Does Ethnio have an API?
Yes. The Ethnio API allows Enterprise customers to send automated Erasure, Opt Out, and Data Subject Requests via API. Uses OAuth 2.0 with JWT bearer tokens (RS512 algorithm) for authentication. Webhooks are also available for notifications. Developer documentation is at ethn.io/api.
What industry is Ethnio in?
Ethnio's product category is UX Research Operations Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAAALAE, Qualitative Research (Focus Groups, IDIs, Ethnography). Its NAICS code is 54191 and its SIC code is 8700.