The job interview is getting its biggest AI makeover yet. Alex, an 18-month-old startup from Y Combinator, just closed a $17 million Series A to automate the initial screening calls that recruiters typically handle manually. The company's voice AI is already conducting thousands of interviews daily for Fortune 100 companies, signaling a major shift in how hiring happens at scale.
Job seekers are about to face a new reality - their first interview might not be with a human at all. Alex, a Y Combinator startup that's automating the initial job screening process, just secured $17 million in Series A funding to expand its AI interviewing platform that's already handling thousands of calls daily.
The round, led by Peak XV Partners with participation from Y Combinator and Uncorrelated Ventures, validates what many in HR already suspected - AI is coming for recruitment, and it's happening faster than expected. Several Fortune 500 CHROs even joined the funding round directly, signaling enterprise enthusiasm for automated hiring tools.
"Our AI recruiter does thousands of interviews a day and helps people get hired at some of the biggest companies in the world," co-founder Aaron Wang told TechCrunch. Wang, who spent time at Facebook before founding Alex 18 months ago, says the platform handles the routine screening tasks that bog down human recruiters - checking backgrounds, discussing salary expectations, and confirming availability.
The timing couldn't be better. While companies are tightening budgets and reducing headcount, they're simultaneously drowning in job applications. Alex's voice AI steps into this gap, conducting autonomous video interviews and phone screens within hours of someone applying. The system frees up human recruiters to focus on building relationships with pre-qualified candidates rather than wading through hundreds of initial conversations.
Though Wang declined to name specific customers, he revealed they include Fortune 100 companies, major financial institutions, nationwide restaurant chains, and Big 4 accounting firms. The client roster suggests AI interviewing has already moved beyond Silicon Valley experiments into mainstream corporate hiring.
Alex isn't operating in a vacuum. The AI recruiting space is heating up with competitors like HeyMilo, ConverzAI, and Ribbon all vying for similar enterprise contracts. Even Mercor, the data labeling startup currently seeking a $10 billion valuation, started as an before pivoting to its current model.
