AI recruiter Alex raises $17 million to automate your first job interview

Job seekers in all fields can expect to do more initial screening interviews soon. It may sound like positive news, but that doesn’t mean there’s a sudden, more open position.

Instead, recruiters often get stuck deciding which applicants are eligible for the next round, but outsource routine screening tasks, including background, payroll needs, and availability checks.

Alex, a startup building AI recruiters, says it’s already helping companies conduct video interviews and phone screens.

Aaron Wang (center of the photo, bottom row), who co-founded Alex about 18 months ago, told TechCrunch that the startup’s voice AI tool can conduct autonomous interviews with applicants right after applying for the job. “Our AI recruiters do thousands of interviews a day to help people get hired at some of the world’s largest companies,” he said.

Wang, who previously worked for Facebook and spent time as a hedge fund Quant, refused to resign from the name of his clients, but said it includes Fortune 100 companies, financial institutions, national restaurant chains and accounting companies from Big 4.

Investors see the rise of AI interviewers as a trend that many companies will inevitably adopt. That conviction led to Alex’s new $17 million Series A round led by Peak XV Partners. The round included participation from Y Combinators and uncorrelated ventures, as well as Chief Head of an unnamed Fortune 500 company (CHRO). The Series A follows the company’s $3 million seed funds led by the venture last year in 1984.

Alex doesn’t just provide AI recruitment services to businesses. Startup competitors include other early stage companies such as Heymilo, Converzai and Ribbon.

Melkor, the fast-growing AI data label startup we reported, has also begun life as an AI recruiter, trying to raise a new round at a $10 billion valuation.

Alex’s long-term vision is to interview millions of job seekers to build professional profile data richer and deeper than what LinkedIn currently offers.

“In our paper, a 10-minute conversation with you tells us more about you than your LinkedIn profile,” Wang said.

For now, however, Alex is focused on helping recruiters develop relationships with qualified candidates in advance and free up time to advise employment managers.