Ethos Capital is an American

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

investment firm founded in 2019 in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, in order to make majority and control minority investments in middle-market companies, primarily across North America and Europe. It is best known for attempting and failing to gain control of the .org internet domain.

History

In 2020, Ethos made news for trying to purchase the .org domain and capitalize upon it using a portfolio of data-monetization startups. After the takeover failed due to

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

voting against the sale of the rights, company founders Erik Brooks and

Fadi Chehadé Fadi Chehadé (Arabic language, Arabic: فادي شحادة) (born 1962) is an information technology executive, founder of RosettaNet and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICANN. Through Ethos Capital, he unsuccessfully tried to gain contro ...

went on to use the vehicle to buy domain name registrar

Donuts A doughnut or donut () is a type of pastry made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franch ...

and registry services provider

Afilias Afilias, Inc. was a US corporation that was the registry operator of the .info, .mobi and .pro top-level domain, service provider for registry operators of .org, .ngo, .lgbt, .asia, .aero, and a provider of domain name registry services f ...

from Abry Partners, where Brooks had been managing partner. In 2022, Afilias and Donuts were merged into a single company,

Identity Digital Identity Digital Inc. is a company with affiliated entities that operate in the domain name industry, including a domain name registrar and registry services provider. It is owned by the private equity firm Ethos Capital. The company acquired t ...

Controversy

Most press coverage of Ethos has focused on allegations of insider dealing between former

CEO Chehadé, who registered the domain name ethoscapital.org in May 2019, one day after price caps were lifted from the .org domain. and current employer Ethos Capital, and the unraveling of a complex web of interlocking control and ownership between domain name registries, registrars, and ICANN, which nominally regulates the domain name industry.

References

External links

* {{official, ethoscapital.com Investment companies of the United States Private equity firms of the United States American companies established in 2019