TechWolf Secures $43 Million to Revolutionize Internal Recruiting with AI

A startup from Ghent, Belgium, called TechWolf is addressing this need uniquely by building an AI engine that ingests data from internal workflows to learn about the people doing that work. This data is then used by managers and internal recruiters to assess employees’ interests and skills more accurately, connect them with different projects, and ultimately provide them with better training.

TechWolf’s innovative technology has attracted an impressive list of customers, including GSK, HSBC, Booking.com, and many others. Recently, the company raised nearly $43 million ($42.75 million precisely) in Series B funding to expand its business.

The funding round was led by London-based Felix Capital, with co-investments from SAP, ServiceNow, and Workday — three titans in HR — collaborating for the first time. Other backers include Acadian Ventures, Fortino Capital Partners, Notion Capital, SemperVirens, and 20VC, along with unnamed “AI leaders” from DeepMind and Meta. The startup’s valuation is now around $150 million.

CEO Andreas De Neve co-founded TechWolf with Jeroen Van Hautte and Mikaël Wornoo in 2018 while they were still computer science students at the University of Ghent in Belgium and Cambridge in England. The original plan was to build an HR platform, using their own language model, similar to ChatGPT, to help source and hire external talent. However, this approach did not succeed. “It failed,” De Neve said simply, explaining that the recruitment part they were targeting was not as broken as anticipated. Employers “didn’t need AI to filter out the good applicants from the bad.”

Instead, their target customers pointed them towards a different problem that needed solving: identifying the skills of their existing employees. HR leaders suggested using their AI model internally to evaluate the skills of their current workforce. “The HR leaders pointed us toward the right problem to solve: identifying the skills of employees,” De Neve said.

In large organizations, understanding what employees actually do can be a significant challenge. “You can have 100,000 employees who are all super capable and spend a lot of time in software systems that create data,” De Neve noted. “But structurally, these companies know very little about these people. So that’s what we set out to do.”

TechWolf’s AI solution integrates with various systems used by employees for work, such as project trackers, documentation systems for developers, and research repositories for researchers. From this data, the AI infers the skills of the workers, creating a detailed profile of each employee. “You can almost think of it as a set of AI models that connect with the digital exhaust of an organization,” De Neve explained.

TechWolf is tapping into several significant trends in the market:

• Internal Talent Management: With layoffs continuing to affect the tech industry, companies are focusing more on how to manage their internal talent efficiently.
• AI in HR: TechWolf’s AI technology provides valuable insights into employees’ skills and interests, helping organizations utilize their workforce more effectively.
• Investor Interest: The impressive funding round and high-profile investors highlight the growing interest in AI solutions for HR.

TechWolf’s Key Investors and Customers

• Accurate Skill Assessment: Provides managers with detailed insights into employees’ skills and interests.
• Better Project Matching: Connects employees with projects that align with their skills and interests.
• Enhanced Training: Identifies areas where employees can benefit from additional training.
• Improved Retention: Helps retain talent by providing growth opportunities within the organization.
• Cost Efficiency: Reduces the need for external hiring by utilizing internal talent more effectively.

The concept of the “Innovator’s Dilemma” explains how successful, large companies can be disrupted by smaller, more agile businesses. TechWolf’s ability to help organizations form flexible teams around different projects and goals could be a key differentiator. Organizations are willing to invest in technology that aids in this task, and TechWolf’s focus on solving the internal skills problem is resonating in the market.

Large language models (LLMs), such as those powering ChatGPT and other generative AI applications, continue to garner significant interest. However, there is also a rising tide for smaller language models (SLMs) tailored to specific use cases. These models are less complex to build and operate and are typically more constrained, making them less prone to errors. TechWolf is not alone in this area; other startups, like Poolside, are also developing AI for specific use cases.

When asked if TechWolf plans to expand into other areas like enterprise search or business intelligence, De Neve emphasized their commitment to solving the skills problem. “We can process data like nobody else in the market, but we are super, super focused on solving the skills problem because there’s too much demand for us already, right now, in the market where we operate,” he said.

This focus could be one reason why investors are interested in companies like TechWolf. Julien Codorniou, the partner at Felix who led the deal, believes TechWolf’s specialized approach could help it outmaneuver even larger companies in the HR tech space. “Doing one thing well can really pay off,” he said. “They don’t want to be Workday or ServiceNow. They want to be the Switzerland of the HR department.”

TechWolf’s innovative AI technology addresses a critical need in internal talent management, providing organizations with valuable insights into their employees’ skills and interests. With significant funding and a growing list of high-profile customers, TechWolf is well-positioned to continue its growth and make a substantial impact on the HR tech industry.

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