Perfect Taps $23M to Revolutionize Recruitment with AI

The Rise of Agentic AI and a New Funding Round

Agentic AI is currently a dominant theme in the technology sector. Both large corporations and smaller development teams are actively creating applications designed to streamline the implementation of generative AI for specialized tasks.

This surge in development is attracting significant investment, with funders eager to support the most promising projects.

Perfect: An AI Co-Pilot for Recruitment

A recent example of this trend is Perfect, an Israeli startup that has secured $23 million in seed funding. The platform is designed to enhance the recruitment process, assisting recruiters in sourcing and selecting job candidates.

Perfect functions as a collaborative tool, aiding recruitment teams in crafting effective job descriptions, determining optimal placement for job postings, and efficiently managing incoming applications.

Competition and Capabilities

The platform operates both alongside and in competition with established players in the recruitment technology space, such as Indeed, Recruiter, and LinkedIn.

Perfect asserts that its technology can reduce a recruiter’s workload by up to 25 hours each week.

Rapid Growth and Client Base

Since its initial launch, Perfect has experienced substantial growth. Within a year, the company has expanded its customer base from 20 to 200 businesses.

Notable clients include Fiverr, eToro, McCann, and Coralogix, demonstrating the platform’s appeal to a diverse range of organizations.

This expansion highlights the increasing demand for AI-powered solutions within the human resources sector.

The Evolution from Facial Recognition to Talent Acquisition

Perfect was established by Eylon Etshtein, previously recognized as the founder of AnyVision, a facial recognition company that underwent rebranding and was ultimately acquired.

Etshtein explained that the concept for Perfect originated from his direct experiences while leading AnyVision. He personally managed much of the candidate evaluation, quickly realizing the inherent limitations in scaling such a hands-on approach.

Leveraging his background with an AI-driven facial recognition firm designed to identify specific individuals, Etshtein envisioned a platform capable of learning and predicting the ideal candidate profile for AnyVision, thereby streamlining the recruitment process.

Following his departure from a daily operational role at AnyVision – prior to the increased focus on “resilience” technologies – Etshtein determined his next venture would center around this innovative recruitment solution.

While numerous AI-powered HR startups currently exist, Etshtein and his investors contend that Perfect distinguishes itself through its foundational architecture. The platform was built independently, without reliance on third-party large language models, utilizing a proprietary vector dataset and training data sourced from external providers.

He stated that the company typically acquires data from established recruitment firms and then refines it for reuse within their system.

“ChatGPT was not yet available when we initiated Perfect’s development,” he noted. “There wasn’t a framework available to construct an algorithm that could map a career path, considering an individual’s history, current status, and potential future trajectory.”

The development of the Perfect platform required approximately three years of dedicated effort, but this foundational work proved resilient to the emergence of large language models. “LLMs struggle with substantial data volumes,” Etshtein clarified.

In recruitment terminology, “data volumes” refer to the approximately 50 data points associated with each candidate, meticulously organized and annotated to generate actionable insights.

“The utilization of proprietary, annotated data is essential for achieving the level of accuracy we currently deliver,” he emphasized.

The funding announcement marks the release of two investment tranches. Perfect secured approximately $12 million in equity funding a year ago from investors including Target Global, RTP Global, and Pitango.

Subsequently, the company obtained an interest-free SAFE note, convertible to equity in a future funding round, from Hanaco Ventures, Joule Ventures, and Young Sohn, former president of Samsung and current board member of Arm.

Lior Prosor, a partner at Hanaco Ventures, stated, “Perfect is employing proprietary datasets and integrating seamlessly into industry workflows to revolutionize recruitment, automating a significant portion of daily tasks for both agencies and candidates, in an industry urgently needing genuine innovation.”

The recruitment sector, where Perfect is concentrating its efforts, has become a focal point for AI application development, and understandably so, given the inherent inefficiencies within traditional recruitment processes.

The application process for certain roles or prestigious companies can be overwhelming, making the identification of qualified candidates akin to “finding a needle in a haystack,” as described by Perfect’s CEO and co-founder, Eylon Etshtein.

Conversely, some positions struggle to attract sufficient applicants due to factors such as limited visibility or organizational reputation. Coupled with the manual effort of application screening, this creates a compelling opportunity for AI-driven solutions.

Perfect is not alone in this space, competing with companies like LinkedIn, HiBob, Workable, Maki, Mercor, Tezi, and SeekOut, among many others.

Future plans for the startup include further enhancements to its recruiter toolset. Additionally, Perfect intends to develop a free resource for candidates, enabling them to refine their job search strategies, which will likely provide the company with valuable data for future development.