AI recruiter Alex raises $17M to automate initial job interviews

Job seekers in all fields can count on to quickly be doing much more preliminary screening interviews. Whereas that will sound like optimistic information, it doesn’t imply that there’ll all of the sudden be extra open positions.

As an alternative, recruiters, usually slowed down with figuring out which candidates are certified for the subsequent spherical, will outsource the routine screening duties — like checking backgrounds, wage wants, and availability — to (you guessed it) AI.

Alex, a startup constructing an AI recruiter, says it’s already serving to firms conduct video interviews and cellphone screens.

Aaron Wang (pictured middle, backside row), who co-founded Alex about 18 months in the past, instructed Trendster that the startup’s voice AI instrument can conduct autonomous interviews with candidates quickly after they apply for a job. “Our AI recruiter does hundreds of interviews a day and helps folks get employed at a number of the largest firms on the planet,” he mentioned.

Though Wang, who beforehand labored at Fb and frolicked as a quant for a hedge fund, declined to call prospects, he mentioned they embrace Fortune 100 firms, monetary establishments, nationwide restaurant chains, and Huge 4 accounting companies.

Traders view the rise of AI interviewers as a pattern that many firms will inevitably undertake. That conviction led to Alex’s new $17 million Sequence A spherical, which was led by Peak XV Companions. The spherical included participation from Y Combinator and Uncorrelated Ventures, together with a number of chief human sources officers (CHROs) from unnamed Fortune 500 firms, and others. This Sequence A follows the corporate’s $3 million seed funding, which was led by 1984 Ventures final yr.

Alex isn’t alone in providing AI recruiting companies to firms. The startup’s opponents embrace different early-stage firms like HeyMilo, ConverzAI, and Ribbon.

Mercor, the quickly rising AI knowledge labeling startup that we reported is trying to lift a brand new spherical at a $10 billion valuation, additionally began its life as an AI recruiter.

Alex’s long-term imaginative and prescient is to interview tens of millions of job candidates to construct skilled profile knowledge that’s richer and deeper than what LinkedIn presently provides.

“Our thesis is {that a} 10-minute dialog with you tells me a complete lot extra about you than your LinkedIn profile does,” Wang mentioned.

However for now, Alex is targeted on serving to recruiters unencumber their time to construct relationships with pre-qualified candidates and advising hiring managers.