Storied Silicon Valley VC agency Andreessen Horowitz is backing a fledgling U.Okay. startup that’s getting down to “redefine” how AI is used to match corporations with expertise.
Dex, because the startup is named, targets candidates and corporations with varied AI-powered recruitment smarts, together with matchmaking and training, with a view towards bettering retention in the long term.
Dex is the handiwork of CTO Harry Uglow and CEO Paddy Lambros (pictured above), who not too long ago left their positions as software program engineer and head of expertise, respectively, at European VC agency Atomico. Whereas they are saying that Dex has already lured some two dozen U.Okay. tech corporations on board (“including two high-profile U.K. unicorns”), the platform is remaining in closed beta for now as they fine-tune issues forward of a broader launch later this 12 months.
Forward of that, the London-based startup on Tuesday introduced it has raised $3.1 million in a pre-seed spherical of funding led by a16z’s Speedrun fund and Idea Ventures, with participation from a slew of angels from throughout the tech and VC panorama, together with: Meta board member Charlie Songhurst; Deliveroo COO Eric French; Incident.io CEO Stephen Whitworth; Notion Capital companion Kamil Mieczakowski; and ex-Atomico companion Bryce Keane.
Rent floor
With AI changing into more and more intertwined within the recruitment realm, Dex is coming into a busy house — this contains fledgling startups, well-funded unicorns, and new AI smarts baked instantly into LinkedIn. Nevertheless, Dex sees a spot for an all-encompassing platform that’s laser-focused on actually attending to know candidates.
Within the first occasion, Dex — which the corporate pitches as an “AI voice talent agent” — converses with candidates by way of a name to garner an understanding of their expertise, abilities, ambitions, and extra. Subsequently, Dex may also help them plan their subsequent profession transfer; current them with related alternatives; put together them for interviews; and even negotiate presents they could obtain.
It’s price noting that Dex will work each for passive candidates — i.e. these not actively trying to find a brand new job — and people very a lot on the hunt. For example, as soon as Dex has constructed a profile of the candidate, it could actually preserve tabs on open positions marketed on the net — maybe very particular sorts of roles at very particular corporations — and serve alerts when such alternatives crop up.
For these actively in search of new work, Dex can go the complete 9 yards, from search by way of to software.
“Dex talks through what you want — your preferences and needs — and asks questions to deeply understand your experience and skills,” Lambros defined to TechCrunch. “Using this data, Dex then maps the entire market to find the most appropriate opportunities and surfaces them to you. If you want to proceed, Dex handles the application — no more CV, no more cover letter — and when there is a match, introduces you to the hiring manager.”
So for candidates, Dex is much less market or job board, and extra an AI agent that does all of the mundane stuff for them.
“We believe candidates don’t want to trawl through hundreds of generic job advertisements, so Dex does the searching for you, saving you hours of scrolling, researching, and then admin applying,” Lambros stated.
In spite of everything this, Dex can coach candidates for his or her interview and even present market information on issues like common compensation for such roles.
Lambros stated that along with leaning on “large public data sets and thousands of interviews and call transcripts,” Dex spoke to greater than 50 of the U.Okay.’s “most experienced recruitment leaders” to find out about their recruitment methodology, and what they search for of their best candidates. And all this information, in the end, went into Dex.
Below the hood, Dex is constructed on a number of LLM suppliers, together with OpenAI, Google (Gemini), and Meta (Llama), switching primarily based on no matter enhancements are launched with every respective mannequin.
“We’re constantly evaluating and changing providers to ensure that we are able to benefit from the latest advancements,” Uglow stated.
On the corporate aspect, in the meantime, Dex converses with recruitment groups to ascertain their preferences for his or her best candidate.
“Dex speaks with hiring managers and candidates to deeply understand what a great fit looks like,” Uglow stated. “The culture, behaviors, wants, needs, and ambitions of individuals and companies. This is then combined with a wide range of publicly available data, powering our recommendation systems to curate personalized matches.”
With $3.1 million within the financial institution, the corporate is now ramping up its hiring throughout engineering and advertising, with a view towards launching publicly beginning within the U.Okay., earlier than seeking to worldwide markets.
“Hiring isn’t about filling seats — it’s about creating lasting partnerships that benefit employees and companies,” Lambros stated. “With this funding, we’ll help companies retain top talent and empower employees to find work they love.”
