Ethical Advocacy

What Ethical Advocacy does

Ethical Advocate is a privately held, founder-led ethics and compliance SaaS provider headquartered in Chapel Hill–Durham, North Carolina, serving public companies, non-profits, educational institutions, and government entities across the United States. Its core product is a cloud-based Online Ethics Reporting Platform paired with a 24/7/365 anonymous hotline that supports translation into 200 languages through a third-party-independent call center, enabling employees and stakeholders to submit confidential reports of fraud, harassment, safety violations, and other misconduct. The platform is modular, offering integrated Case Management and customizable Analytics modules, and is delivered as SaaS requiring no in-house software for clients to maintain. It is engineered to meet Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and ADA Title II / WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance frameworks, with the latter certified ahead of the April 2026 federal deadline.

The company monetizes primarily through annual subscription contracts for hotline and case management services, supplemented by online and in-person ethics and compliance training covering topics such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), fraud awareness, and harassment prevention. Pricing is quote-based and positioned as highly cost-effective — less than the cost of a Starbucks tall latte per employee per year for a 3,000-person organization — and the company advertises free inclusion of additional risk categories for existing customers. Go-to-market is sales-led, combining direct phone and email outreach, an inbound website funnel, content marketing through an active blog, and government procurement via its GSA Schedule contract. According to the company's own announcements, more than 5.5 million people across all sectors are contracted to use its whistleblower hotline, and it holds recognition including a 96/100 GSA customer service score and one of the highest D&B Anonymous Client Satisfaction Survey results on record. The firm is privately held with no disclosed institutional investors and operates with a small 11–50 employee headcount.

Name

Ethical Advocacy

Legal name

Ethical Advocate

Website

https://ethicaladvocate.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Ethical Advocate is a privately held North Carolina-based SaaS provider of ethics and compliance solutions — anonymous 24/7 hotlines, case management, analytics, and training — serving public/private companies, non-profits, education, and government clients across more than 5.5 million contracted users.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Durham

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Ethics Hotline Services: Anonymous and confidential reporting hotline available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Services provided via software as a service (SaaS) model with no in-house software for clients to update or maintain. Annual fee structure with additional risk categories included at no extra cost for existing customers.
2. Ethics and Compliance Training: Training delivered online and in person covering business ethics, harassment and discrimination, FCPA, fraud awareness, and more. Self-guided online training modules accessible 24/7/365 with certificate and record of completion. Executive training for top management on ethical crisis response and communication.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Ethical Advocate provides a cloud-based SaaS ethics and compliance platform centered on an anonymous Online Ethics Reporting Platform and a 24/7 phone-and-web Hotline that supports 200 languages, with integrated Case Management and Analytics modules. It also delivers online and in-person Ethics and Compliance Training covering business ethics, harassment and discrimination, FCPA, and fraud awareness, helping organizations meet SOX, FAR, and ADA Title II regulatory and reporting requirements.

Product overview

Ethical Advocate provides a cloud-based ethics and compliance platform centered on its Online Ethics Reporting Platform and Anonymous Hotline Services. The platform integrates Analytics and Case Management modules for report tracking, data analysis, and trend evaluation. Additional services include Ethics and Compliance Training delivered online and in person. The system supports reporting in 200 languages and meets regulatory requirements including Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and ADA Title II (WCAG 2.1 Level AA). Target sectors include public and private companies, non-profits, educational institutions, and government agencies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Online Ethics Reporting Platform Cloud-based web application that allows employees and stakeholders to anonymously and confidentially report ethics, compliance, and misconduct incidents via website and integrated call center, with downstream case management and analytics. Designed for compliance officers, HR, and leadership at public and private organizations, non-profits, educational institutions, and government agencies.
• Anonymous Hotline Services Confidential, anonymous reporting hotline available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, accessible via phone and web, supporting translation across 200 languages. Sold as an annual SaaS subscription to organizations seeking third-party, independent intake of fraud, harassment, discrimination, and other misconduct reports.
• Ethics and Compliance Training Online self-guided and in-person training program covering business ethics, harassment and discrimination, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), fraud awareness, and other regulatory compliance topics, with certificates and records of completion. Targeted at employees and executives of organizations that need documented training to support their ethics and compliance programs, including SOX- and FCPA-related requirements.

Quantifiable outcome

• Hotlines reduce cost of fraud by half and reduce length of time to discovery by 35% (ACFE 2022 Report to the Nations)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)minorOthersReference partner whose research and reports (2022 Report to the Nations) are cited to support the effectiveness of ethics hotlines in reducing fraud. Not an formal partnership but research collaboration reference.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Workiva: Workiva provides a cloud platform for SOX, risk, and ESG reporting primarily to finance, audit, and compliance teams. It overlaps with Ethical Advocate on SOX-aligned compliance buyers and increasingly on ethics and disclosure reporting workflows.
• SAI360 (formerly SAI Global): SAI360 offers risk, compliance, ethics, and learning software for regulated industries. It competes with Ethical Advocate on ethics hotline and training as part of a much broader GRC platform, often winning enterprise deals where bundled risk management is required.
• Diligent: Diligent provides governance, risk, and compliance software serving boards, general counsel, and compliance leaders. It overlaps with Ethical Advocate on ethics and compliance workflows and competes for the same regulated-buyer procurement budgets.
• OneTrust: OneTrust is a broad GRC and trust intelligence platform that includes ethics, hotline, and whistleblower capabilities following its Convercent acquisition. It bundles ethics with privacy, security, and ESG, competing for the same Chief Compliance Officer buyer with a much wider portfolio.

Direct peers

• EQS Group: EQS Group provides whistleblower hotlines, compliance investigations, and governance solutions, with strong multilingual capability across European and global markets. It directly competes with Ethical Advocate on ethics hotline, case management, and cross-border compliance use cases.
• NAVEX Global: NAVEX Global is the largest dedicated ethics and compliance hotline provider, offering ethics hotlines, case management, training, and policy management. It is the most direct competitor to Ethical Advocate across the same customer segments (corporate, government, healthcare) and product modules.
• GAN Integrity: GAN Integrity offers a third-party ethics and compliance platform with hotline, case management, and training modules. It is a focused, smaller-scale direct competitor with comparable target customers in Latin America and globally.
• Convercent (now part of OneTrust): Convercent provides an ethics and compliance cloud platform including hotline reporting, case management, and analytics. It serves the same enterprise and mid-market buyer (Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel) with overlapping product functionality.

Emerging players

• EasyLlama: EasyLlama delivers online ethics, harassment, and compliance training with modern UX and self-serve onboarding. While lighter on hotline/case management, it competes for the same training wallet and increasingly for compliance program buyers that Ethical Advocate targets.

Others

• 360training (LMS partner): 360training provides the LMS infrastructure that Ethical Advocate uses to deliver its online training modules. It is a partner/enabler rather than a competitor, but represents an adjacent compliance-training market relevant to Ethical Advocate's training offering.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ethical Advocacy