Netherlands-based predictive hiring software company Pera has raised €5 million ($5.5 million U.S.) to expand its operations across Benelux and the U.K., according to the company.
Founded in 2015, Pera uses AI to analyze human language — which it says has distinctive fingerprints relating to a respondent’s “personality, motivation and behavior” — to facilitate companies’ talent acquisition and promotion decisions. It asks three open questions online from candidates, whose semantics are then analyzed and compared with others in the same role. A personal report for the candidate is generated to guide an employer in hiring or promoting the individual. Pera has a database of more than 5.5 million professionals.
The new capital came from Brabant Development Agency as well as existing investors, including ECG Ventures, according to an investment announcement.
According to CrunchBase, the fresh investment was part of the startup’s Series A funding round, which took the total investment in Pera to €13 million.
“We want to be the basis for every HR decision: who to hire, who to develop and who to promote,” said CEO Rina Joosten-Rabou.
“We can determine success after hiring much more precisely than a CV, a game or a conversation from the answer and language used, so quality increases. Because the method does not look at origin or background, we also discover candidates that would go unnoticed, and we tap into new talent groups, therefore ensuring more diversity based on talent and potential, not on background or experience.”
