Hiring, Rehumanized
Today’s featured startup is quietly rethinking the hiring process — and it begins with listening.
Project Overview
Today’s startup was founded just this year, yet it’s already raised $3.1 million in a round led by the highly respected venture fund a16z — a strong signal that the company is operating in a space with real momentum.
Dex helps people build careers they can actually love.
To do that, the startup built an AI assistant that talks to candidates — by voice or chat — to understand their background, skills, motivations, and ambitions. The goal is to match them with jobs they’re truly suited for.
On the flip side, the same AI interviews hiring managers and recruiters to understand what kind of talent they’re looking for. Dex isn’t in the business of flooding companies with applicants. Instead, it aims to send fewer — but far more relevant — candidates for each role.
Since the company is still very new, Dex is currently running in a closed beta, offering access only to selected companies. But even without paying clients or revenue traction, the team has secured millions in early funding.
What’s the Gist?
What’s happening in hiring right now can only be described as a crisis. Globally, companies spend $969 billion on recruitment agencies — only for those new hires to quit soon after.
In the UK, for example, 46% of new hires leave or are fired within 18 months. And it’s not usually because of a lack of skills — it’s because of cultural mismatch. Misaligned values, behaviors, and expectations are the real deal-breakers.
That’s the piece Dex wants to fix — by making the hiring process more human.
The problem? You can’t extract that “human” information from resumes or job descriptions. Those are packed with clichés used by both sides — “fast-growing company,” “tight-knit team,” “strategic thinking,” “willing to learn and take responsibility”… you know the drill.
Dex’s AI sidesteps this by having deep, personal conversations — with both candidates and recruiters — pulling out the stuff that never makes it into resumes or job ads. It digs into topics usually left unspoken, asks follow-up questions, and cross-validates responses.
The goal is to use this qualitative data to make better long-term matches between people and companies.
That same mission drives Mercor, another startup tackling the same issue. Its AI also interviews both sides to predict long-term compatibility based on values and ambitions — not just skills. Since last fall, Mercor’s revenue has been growing 51% month-over-month. In February, it raised $100 million at a $2 billion valuation — just six months after raising a $32 million round.
Like Mercor, Dex takes a candidate-first approach. Its mission: help people find meaningful work aligned with their values and ambitions.
In simpler terms, Dex sees itself as a “talent agent” — the same way actors, athletes, and musicians have agents. Why shouldn’t everyone have one?
This isn’t a new idea. Back in 2021, Free Agency pitched itself as a “Hollywood agent for tech professionals” and raised $20.4 million to make it happen. After a period of stealth, it’s now gearing up for a relaunch — likely with its own AI agent in tow.
Key Takeaways
Even beyond hiring, there’s a bigger insight here: people share far more in voice conversations than they ever do in résumés or forms — and AI can now tap into that.
One example is Boardy, a new kind of professional social network. Its AI calls you on the phone, chats with you, and then suggests people in the network you should meet. After launching last fall, Boardy has already raised $11 million across two rounds.
Another one is Series, launched last summer. Its AI chats via text, not voice — but it still helps professionals discover like-minded connections based on deeper signals. Series raised $3.1 million just last month.
Why is voice so powerful? Because it doesn’t just capture what someone says — it also captures how they say it. We get only 7% of information from words, but 38% from the emotion in someone’s voice.
Audioforms is capitalizing on that. Their platform lets people fill out forms by voice. The AI transcribes the answers and captures emotional signals, giving richer context to every response.
The trend? Platforms that use voice-based AI to optimize existing business processes by pulling out deeper insights from the humans involved.
So the real question is:
What business processes still rely on shallow, surface-level data?
What emotional or contextual information are we missing?
And can voice AI become the tool that uncovers it?
In that light, both Dex and Mercor aren’t just “recruitment startups.” They’re part of a broader movement to bring more depth — and more humanity — into how businesses operate.
Hiring just happens to be the perfect place to start. It’s a broken market: companies think there’s a talent shortage, while candidates believe there’s a shortage of decent employers. Really, it’s just a colossal mismatch problem.
Which is why platforms like Dex and Mercor could be the beginning of a very big wave 🚀
Company info:
Dex AI
Website: https://meetdex.ai/
Last funding round: €8.1 million, 12.12.2024
Total funds raised: €20 million over 3 rounds