A16z backs UK startup Dex to scale ‘AI talent agent’ and recruitment matchmaker

Legie Silicon Valley VC company Andreessen Horowitz supports a young startup in the UK that wants to ‘define again’ how AI is used to match companies with talent.

DexAs the startup is called, a focus on candidates and companies with various AI-driven recruitment Smarts, including matchmaking and coaching, with a view to improving the long-term retention.

Dex is the handicraft of CTO Harry Uglow and CEO Paddy Lambros (shown above), who recently left their positions as software engineer and head of talent at the European VC company Atomico. Although they say that Dex has already lured about two dozen British technology companies on board (“including two high-profile UK-Hoorns”), the platform will remain in closed beta for the time being, because they refine things later this year for a wider launch.

Before that, the London-based startup announced on Tuesday that it collected $ 3.1 million in a pre-Seeded Tour of Financing led by A16Z’s Speedrun Fund and concept ventures, with the participation of a whole series of angels from the entire landscape of Tech and VC, including: Meta board member Charlie Songhurst; Deliveroo Coo Eric French; Incident.io CEO Stephen Whitworth; Notion Capital Partner Kamil Mieczakowski; and ex-atomico partner Bryce Keane.

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Because AI is becoming increasingly intertwined with the recruitment kingdom, Dex is coming a busy space within DIT includes young startups, well-funded unicorns and new AI-Smarts who are baked directly in LinkedIn. However, Dex sees a gap for a comprehensive platform that is aimed at laser Real Get to know candidates.

In the first instance, DEX – who throws the company as an “AI Voice Talent Agent” – with candidates through a call to gain insight into their experience, skills, ambitions and more. Dex can then help them plan their next career step; they present with relevant opportunities; Prepare them for interviews; And even negotiate offers that they can receive.

It is worth noting that DEX will both work for passive candidates – ie those who are not actively looking for a new job – and who are very hunting. For example, as soon as Dex has built a profile of the candidate, it can keep an eye on open positions that are advertised on the internet – perhaps very specific types of roles at very specific companies – and fulfill warnings when such options appear.

For those who are actively looking for new work, Dex can go full nine meters, from search to application.

“Dex talks about what you want – your preferences and needs – and asks questions to deeply understand your experience and skills,” Lambros explained to WAN. “With the help of this data, DEX then maps the entire market to find the most suitable opportunities and to add them to you. If you want to continue, Dex will process the request – no longer CV, no more application letter – and when there is a match, appoint the recruitment manager.”

So for candidates, Dex is less marketplace or vacancies, and more an AI agent who does all everyday things for them.

“We believe that candidates do not want to cross hundreds of generic vacancies, so Dex is looking for the search for you, which saves you hours of scrolling, research and then admin application,” Lambros said.

After all this, DEX can coach candidates for their interview and even provide market data about things like an average compensation for such roles.

Lambros said that in addition to ‘large public data sets and thousands of interviews and transcriptions’ Dex, with more than 50 of the ‘most experienced recruitment leaders’ of the UK, to learn about their recruitment method and what they are looking for in their ideal candidates. And all this data eventually went to Dex.

Under the hood, DEX is built on several LLM providers, including OpenAi, Google (Gemini) and Meta (LLAMA), switch based on the improvements that are introduced with every respective model.

“We are constantly evaluating and changing providers to ensure that we can take advantage of the latest progress,” Uglow said.

On the company’s side, meanwhile, Conprakt Dex with recruitment teams to determine their preferences for their ideal candidate.

“Dex speaks with recruitment managers and candidates to deeply understand what a great fit looks like,” said Uglow. “The culture, behavior, wishes, needs and ambitions of individuals and companies. This is then combined with a wide range of publicly available data, which involves us to put together on personalized competitions.”

With $ 3.1 million in the bank, the company now increases its recruitment in Engineering and Marketing, with a view to launching public starting in the UK, before it looks at international markets.

“Hiring is not about filling seats – it’s about creating sustainable partnerships that benefit employees and companies,” Lambros said. “With this financing we will help companies retain top talent and to enable employees to find work they love.”