Dex raises $3.1M from a16z speedrun and Concept Ventures

Dex Raises $3.1M Pre-Seed Round from a16z speedrun and Concept Ventures to scale leading AI talent agent

• Funding will accelerate development of Dex’s AI Voice talent agent and Machine Learning recruitment matchmaking engine.
• Round led by a16z speedrun & Concept Ventures with participation from angels including Charlie Songhurst (Meta), Nilan Peiris (CPO, Wise) Eric French (COO, Deliveroo) & Stephen Whitworth (CEO, Incident.io).
• Dex is already working with a select group of high growth start ups and hedge funds.

London, UK - 29th April, 2025: Dex, the leading AI Voice talent agent, today announced a $3.1 million pre-seed funding round from a16z speedrun and Concept Ventures with participation from leading angel investors including Charlie Songhurst (Meta), Eric French (COO, Deliveroo), Nilan Peiris, (CPO Wise) & Stephen Whitworth (CEO Incident.io). The investment will fuel Dex’s product development and international expansion.

Paddy Lambros, Co-Founder and CEO of Dex, who previously led the early-stage talent functions at Atomico and Improbable, said “Dex’s mission is to empower individuals to do meaningful work by connecting them with opportunities that align with their ambitions and values. Our aim is to redefine how talent and opportunity connect, globally. We’re working at the forefront of what is possible when it comes to conversational, generative AI and we’re thrilled to have some of the best AI investors in the world helping us to achieve that vision.”

Dex’s mission is to empower individuals to do meaningful work by connecting them with opportunities that align with their ambitions and values.

Paddy Lambros, Co-Founder and CEO of Dex

The Hiring Crisis

In 2025 $969 billion will be spent on recruitment agency fees globally, yet the average tenure in the UK technology sector has reached an all time low of 1.8 years. Today, 46% of new hires fail or quit within 18 months. Dex is addressing the root cause of these problems - poor alignment on culture, behaviours and expectations - by focussing on what really matters, great mutual matchmaking. AI is currently wreaking havoc on traditional hiring practices, companies are being inundated with thousands of AI generated applications and “interview cheating bots” are making it even harder for companies to find great talent.

“We are accelerating towards a zero trust environment in hiring; it’s an AI arms race to the bottom where candidates and companies lose,” said Harry Uglow, Dex Co-Founder and CTO, who previously led the engineering function at Atomico. “Existing solutions are focussed on greater and greater volume, and on less human to human interaction. The point of AI is that it enables us to focus on building human to human relationships in hiring. Not removing them wholesale."

Dex helps companies and candidates focus their time on the right matches. Dex is the only platform combining Generative AI Voice and chat, Machine Learning driven matchmaking & large scale data analysis, making hiring faster, and better for companies and candidates.

The point of AI is that it enables us to focus on building human to human relationships in hiring. Not removing them wholesale

Harry Uglow, Co-Founder and CTO of Dex

How Dex Works

• For candidates: Dex speaks with candidates via voice and chat to understand their past experiences, motivations, skills and ambitions, helping candidates to think about, and plan their career move.
• This rich profile data feeds Dex’s powerful Machine Learning engine, matching candidates with perfect opportunities that often are not advertised. From there, Dex helps candidates to prepare for interviews, understand compensation benchmarks and negotiate offers.
• For employers: Dex speaks with hiring managers and recruitment teams to understand their needs, wants and preferences. Digging in to the specific behavioural, cultural and personal attributes that lead to high performance in role
• Dex sits on top of a universe of publicly available and proprietary candidate data, helping companies to find and engage with key talent and hire their next high performer.

Finding and matching great talent with great companies will be a perennial problem. Every company, culture, role and hire have a multitude of preferences that change and evolve over time

Robin Guo, partner at Andreessen Horowitz "Finding and matching great talent with great companies will be a perennial problem. Every company, culture, role and hire have a multitude of preferences that change and evolve over time,” said Robin Guo, partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “We're excited for Paddy and Harry to bring their deep industry experience and cutting edge AI knowledge to go solve this critical problem.”

The funding will be used to accelerate Dex’s current momentum including:

• Expand Dex’s engineering team, led by CTO co-founder Harry Uglow, alongside making key hires in growth to accelerate existing inbound interest
• Identify and onboard the UK’s leading technologists and technology companies
• Publicly Launch Dex out of closed beta in the UK and expand into international markets.

“Hiring isn’t about filling seats - it’s about creating lasting partnerships that benefit employees and companies” added Lambros. “With this funding, we’ll help companies find and hire top talent and empower employees to find work they love.”

Dex is available to a select group of companies and candidates whilst in Closed Beta. Dex is the last recruiter call you ever have to make - sign up atwww.meetdex.ai.

About Dex:

Dex’s mission is to empower individuals to do meaningful work by connecting them with opportunities that align with their ambitions and values. Dex aims to redefine how talent and opportunity are united using AI. Dex is the only AI talent agent combining matchmaking, coaching, and retention tools for both candidates and employers. Backed by a16z speedrun, Concept Ventures, and industry leaders, Dex is headquartered in London. www.meetdex.ai

Press Contact:

Bryce Keane - Advisor

Bryce.Keane@gmail.com