Ethic
Investing Aligned With What Matters
Ethic is one of the clearest expressions of our one-pocket conviction because we hold it from both sides. We invested directly in Ethic early, helping the team build out their platform and bring it to market, and we also use that same platform to align our own public equities with the values that drive our mission.
Our role: Early direct investor and platform partner
Type: Values-aligned investment technology platform (SEC-registered investment adviser)
Focus: Custom direct indexing and tax-smart, values-aligned portfolios for advisors and institutions
Ethic is an SEC-registered investment adviser; registration does not imply any particular level of skill or training. Firm metrics (assets under management, partner firms, and years managing custom portfolios) reflect Ethic's most recently published data as of 6/30/2026.
An Early Bet on a Better Way to Invest
When we first backed Ethic, values-aligned investing in public markets still meant compromise with off-the-shelf funds with someone else's screens, or expensive active management with no guarantee of either returns or alignment. Ethic was building something different: a data-driven technology platform that could construct customized, tax-smart public market portfolios engineered to a client's specific values without giving up risk-adjusted, market-rate returns.
That was a company worth backing, and it fit our framework exactly. As we've said in our own writing, "in a nod to our one-pocket framework we also invested directly into Ethic to help them build out their platform and bring it to market." Backing the tools that make one-pocket investing possible for others is part of the work.
How we Invest Through Them
Access Ventures uses the Ethic platform to invest in domestic and developed non-U.S. public equities, working with their team to build a custom index that stays true to our organizational values while pursuing market-rate returns. Rather than accept a fund manager's fixed tracking error, we define the range of acceptable variance from the underlying index ourselves with control that lets us screen out what conflicts with our values (poor labor practices, predatory industries, and operational and social failures, among others) while keeping the portfolio diversified and disciplined.
It is one-pocket investing made concrete: our public equities are not a values-neutral corner of the balance sheet, but part of the same mission as everything else we do.
Who They Are Today
Ethic has grown into a leading platform for customized, values-aligned investing, serving advisors and institutions across direct indexing SMAs, model portfolios, and unified managed solutions. By its most recent reporting, Ethic manages:
$10 billion+ in assets under management
300+ partner firms
10+ years managing custom portfolios
Why it Matters To Us
Ethic proves a thesis we care about deeply: that capital is not neutral, and that aligning it with your values need not cost you returns. Backing the company early, and investing through it since, lets us both advance that idea and live it. It's a partnership that has helped bring values-aligned investing into the mainstream and helped keep our own portfolio faithful to our mission.
Keep Exploring
Community flourishes when capital, people, and institutions move together.
Explore more on this topic — recommended episodes, posts, portfolio companies, and resources below:
More Than Profit podcast episodes
other blog posts
resources for download
Economic agency is shaped by systems.
It is shaped by who can access capital, who can take risk without losing stability, and who can participate in ownership. And because agency is shaped by systems, it is also shaped by place.
At Access Ventures, we believe a flourishing regional economy requires more than isolated investment. It requires intentional alignment through blended finance. Because we do not flourish alone.