Fika Jobs raises $4M to build a video-first hiring platform where AI agents interview candidates

The recruitment process has long been criticized for its inefficiency and opacity. Candidates spend hours writing applications and submitting cover letters, only to disappear into what often feels like a black box. Generative AI has only made things messier, with employers increasingly relying on AI-powered screening systems to sort through an overwhelming number of submissions.

Stockholm-based startup Fika jobs thinks there’s a better way. The company is building a video-first recruiting platform that combines AI interview agents with short video profiles, creating something that feels like a cross between LinkedIn and TikTok. Instead of relying solely on resumes, candidates complete AI-powered interviews designed to showcase their personality and communication skills.

Fika Jobs announced a $4 million pre-seed round on Tuesday, which will be used to further develop the platform, grow the team and prepare for a broader launch later this year.

For job seekers, the process starts with connecting a LinkedIn profile. Fika’s AI assesses the candidate’s background and generates personalized interview questions. Candidates then complete an approximately 10-minute video interview with the AI ​​agent, currently powered by Google’s Gemini models.

After the interview, Fika automatically converts the responses into short video clips and organizes them in a profile. Instead of applying for every new position, candidates maintain a live profile that employers can discover and revisit as new opportunities arise.

The idea came from co-founders and brothers Jakob Dubois (CEO) and Alexander Dubois (CTO) while they were building their previous startup.

“When we were building [social app] Gaff, we spent a lot of time recruiting and almost passed on a candidate because his resume didn’t really stand out,” Jakob Dubois told TechCrunch. “We spoke to him anyway and within minutes his grit, drive and ambition became apparent. Exactly the kind of person we wanted to hire.”

That experience convinced the founders that some of the qualities that employers consider most important are difficult to capture on paper.

Unlike most competitors (including Alex, Maki and Mercor) that focus on helping employers find, screen and match candidates more efficiently with AI, Fika is building a platform where candidates maintain video-first profiles and employers browse a group of people who have already been interviewed and evaluated by AI.

If successful, Fika Jobs could help employers assess communication skills and cultural fit early in the hiring process, supplementing traditional resume and application reviews. This approach can be especially valuable for early-career professionals and candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, whose potential isn’t always evident from a resume alone.

Of course, video profiles carry real risks that are also worth recognizing. When employers can see a candidate’s race, age, gender, physical appearance and accent before assessing their qualifications, it opens the door to discrimination that a resume, for all its flaws, at least partially conceals. There’s a reason some companies have turned to blind resume screening.

The platform plans to open early access to candidates this week, with a broader public launch expected this fall. The company will initially focus on Sweden before expanding internationally. Fika currently has a small team, but expects to have around 10 employees by the end of the year.

More than a hundred companies are on the waiting list, the founders say, but they declined to reveal which ones. Separately, they said more than 50 companies have tested the platform, including Plenty Labs, SICS.ai, Kognity and Rebtel.

The platform is free for job seekers. Employers pay nothing upfront, but Fika takes 10% of a candidate’s first-year salary upon a successful hire. (The company notes that this is lower than the 20% to 30% placement fees often charged by traditional recruiters and headhunters.)

The round was led by Luminar Ventures, with participation from Alliance VC and King co-founders Sebastian Knutsson and Riccardo Zacconi, the duo best known for creating the popular mobile game Candy Crush.