Storied Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is betting on a new player in the recruitment tech scene. Dex, a London-based startup, is aiming to reshape how companies find and keep top talent using AI-powered matchmaking and career coaching.
Built by former Atomico executives Paddy Lambros and Harry Uglow, Dex offers a smarter way for companies and candidates to connect. Instead of endless job board scrolling, Dex acts like a personal AI talent agent — understanding each candidate’s experience, skills, and ambitions through natural conversations, and matching them with the perfect opportunities.
Although the platform is still in closed beta, it has already attracted around two dozen U.K. tech companies, including two unicorns. To gear up for a wider launch later this year, Dex just raised $3.1 million in a pre-seed round led by a16z’s Speedrun fund and Concept Ventures. Other prominent investors include Meta board member Charlie Songhurst, Deliveroo COO Eric French, and Incident.io CEO Stephen Whitworth.
How Dex Plans to Disrupt Talent Recruitment
Dex enters an increasingly crowded market where AI already plays a major role in hiring. Startups, unicorns, and even giants like LinkedIn are using AI to streamline recruitment. Yet Dex believes there’s room for a platform that focuses deeply on candidates — not just employers.
Instead of offering another job board, Dex chats directly with candidates to understand what they want in their next move. It asks about career goals, skills, preferences, and motivations, then uses AI to search for tailored opportunities across the market. When it finds a match, Dex handles the entire application process — no more resumes or cover letters needed.
For passive job seekers, Dex continuously monitors openings and sends alerts when a perfect fit appears. For active searchers, it becomes a full-service agent, guiding them through every step — from applying to negotiating offers.
Candidates also receive personalized coaching to prepare for interviews and insights into market salaries for their roles. Behind the scenes, Dex combines massive public data sets, interview transcripts, and input from more than 50 veteran recruiters to fine-tune its matching system.
The Tech Powering Dex’s Smart Matchmaking
Dex runs on a combination of large language models (LLMs) from OpenAI, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Llama family. The team constantly evaluates new updates, switching between providers to stay on the cutting edge of AI capabilities.
On the employer side, Dex chats with hiring managers to uncover what a “perfect fit” looks like — not just skills, but culture, behavior, goals, and personal motivations. It then uses AI to cross-reference these insights with public data to deliver highly curated candidate matches.
The $3.1 million pre-seed investment will help Dex expand its engineering and marketing teams as it prepares for a public launch in the U.K., with international expansion plans to follow.
For Lambros and Uglow, the mission is clear: build a future where hiring isn’t just about filling roles, but about forming lasting partnerships. As Lambros put it, “We’re here to help people find work they love — and help companies keep their best talent longer.”
