Sapia.ai, a Melbourne-based startup that created an AI-powered recruitment platform, has announced raising A$17 million ($11 million) in a Series A funding round co-anchored by Macquarie Capital and Woolworths Group’s venture capital arm W23.
Founded in 2013, Sapia.ai claims that its technology is the first solution of its kind to disrupt biases that affect traditional recruitment processes, delivering fair outcomes for candidates and companies. In the last 12 months, the startup said it has doubled its customers.
Barb Hyman, Sapia.ai founder and CEO, describes the mission of Sapia is “to make equity in the workplace a reality”. “We give them (customers) data and insights that let them track fairness and bias in their decisions across the employment journey,” Hyman said.
Sapia said it will use the fresh funds for continued overseas expansion, including its foray into the US HR market, and making the platform available in multiple languages.
The funding comes about six months after Sapia raised $7 million in a seed round backed by Nasdaq-listed recruitment firm Hudson.
Ingrid Maes, managing director of W23, said Woolworths Group had been using Sapia.ai for 12 months. It had improved its hiring processes and the experience of candidates applying for roles.
“Woolworths Group is always recruiting and we see tens of thousands of applications processed annually in our supermarket business. This new technology positively impacts bias during the recruitment process,” Maes said.
Sapia.ai joins a list of Australian firms that have raised funds so far this year. Recently, Melbourne-founded global payments startup Airwallex announced raising $100 million in a Series E extension funding at a steady valuation of $5.5 billion.
Square Peg, Australia’s largest pensions-backed venture capital firm, also raised $550 million for its fifth fund that will focus on tech founders in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Israel. Blackbird, another Australian VC, also raised $640 million for a new fund that will invest in general companies in Australia and New Zealand.