Dex, a recruitment platform startup, has raised £4 million in a seed round led by Notion Capital, with participation from a16z Speedrun, Concept Ventures 2100, and angel investors from OpenAI and other leading organisations. The funding follows a previous $3.1 million pre-seed round in 2025, bringing total funding to $8.4 million, and will accelerate its mission of helping individuals find meaningful work through AI technology.
The global recruitment industry relies on traditional processes that are described as ineffective, with nearly $1 trillion spent annually on agency fees. Dex addresses this by acting as a talent agent that has conversations with users to understand their experiences, motivations, ambitions and values, then matches them with relevant roles. It supports candidates with researching opportunities, benchmarking compensation and preparing for interviews, while also gathering insights from hiring teams to enable direct introductions when there is a mutual fit.
Dex reports that more than 15,000 engineers have signed up to its platform and over 50 technology businesses are using it to find talent. Since monetising the product in late 2025, it has grown from zero revenue to an annualised run rate of $1.8 million. The business is headquartered in London and plans to expand to the United States, targeting New York and San Francisco.
Traditional recruitment is often unsuccessful and, so far, AI hasn’t helped much. We’re currently seeing an AI ‘arms race’ to the bottom, with companies being flooded by AI-generated applications, while individuals are often subjected to inhumane – and unethical – screening. Dex offers an alternative. We believe that meaningful work matters, and people find fulfilment if they care about what they do. Too many people are working in jobs they don’t like, doing work they don’t care about, on problems that don’t matter. This is why it is important to gain a full picture of the individual, and the job openings, so Dex can find the right fit for them.
The inner workings of the $856B recruitment industry have barely changed in decades. Despite the proliferation of software the cost to hire continues to go up while both candidates and the hiring managers are provided with an inferior experience that optimises for all the wrong things. In an ocean of products prioritising employers, Dex acts as a partner of the candidate, creating trust in a way that today's recruiters rarely can. Dex is already working with some of the most exciting tech companies in Europe and US, providing them with top quality technical talent and we&'re very excited to be supporting them on this next chapter of their journey.
