Storied Silicon Valley VC agency Andreessen Horowitz is backing a fledgling U.Ok. startup that’s getting down to “redefine” how AI is used to match firms with expertise.

Dex, because the startup is known as, targets candidates and firms with numerous AI-powered recruitment smarts, together with matchmaking and training, with a view towards enhancing retention in the long term.

Dex is the handiwork of CTO Harry Uglow and CEO Paddy Lambros (pictured above), who just lately 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.Ok. tech corporations on board (“together with two high-profile U.Ok. unicorns”), the platform is remaining in closed beta for now as they fine-tune issues forward of a broader launch later this yr.

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 accomplice Kamil Mieczakowski; and ex-Atomico accomplice Bryce Keane.

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With AI becoming increasingly intertwined within the recruitment realm, Dex is getting into a busy area — this consists of fledgling startups, well-funded unicorns, and new AI smarts baked directly into LinkedIn. Nonetheless, 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 expertise agent” — converses with candidates through a name to garner an understanding of their expertise, expertise, ambitions, and extra. Subsequently, Dex will help them plan their subsequent profession transfer; current them with related alternatives; put together them for interviews; and even negotiate provides they could obtain.

It’s value 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 might probably hold tabs on open positions marketed on the internet — maybe very particular sorts of roles at very particular firms — and serve alerts when such alternatives crop up.

For these actively looking for new work, Dex can go the total 9 yards, from search via to utility.

“Dex talks via what you need — your preferences and wishes — and asks inquiries to deeply perceive your expertise and expertise,” Lambros defined to TechCrunch. “Utilizing this information, Dex then maps all the market to seek out probably the most acceptable alternatives and surfaces them to you. If you wish to proceed, Dex handles the appliance — no extra CV, no extra cowl letter — and when there’s a match, introduces you to the hiring supervisor.”

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 imagine candidates don’t need to trawl via lots of of generic job commercials, so Dex does the trying to find you, saving you hours of scrolling, researching, after which admin making use of,” Lambros mentioned.

In any case this, Dex can coach candidates for his or her interview and even present market information on issues like common compensation for such roles.

Lambros mentioned that along with leaning on “giant public information units and 1000’s of interviews and name transcripts,” Dex spoke to greater than 50 of the U.Ok.’s “most skilled recruitment leaders” to study their recruitment methodology, and what they search for of their splendid candidates. And all this information, in the end, went into Dex.

Underneath the hood, Dex is constructed on a number of LLM suppliers, together with OpenAI, Google (Gemini), and Meta (Llama), switching based mostly on no matter enhancements are launched with every respective mannequin.

“We’re consistently evaluating and altering suppliers to make sure that we’re capable of profit from the newest developments,” Uglow mentioned.

On the corporate facet, in the meantime, Dex converses with recruitment groups to ascertain their preferences for his or her splendid candidate.

“Dex speaks with hiring managers and candidates to deeply perceive what an incredible match seems like,” Uglow mentioned. “The tradition, behaviors, desires, wants, and ambitions of people and firms. That is then mixed with a variety of publicly obtainable information, powering our advice methods to curate personalised 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.Ok., earlier than seeking to worldwide markets.

“Hiring isn’t about filling seats — it’s about creating lasting partnerships that profit workers and firms,” Lambros mentioned. “With this funding, we’ll assist firms retain prime expertise and empower workers to seek out work they love.”