Hackajob

hackajob operates an AI-native hiring platform that connects technology and knowledge workers with employers through a two-sided, candidate-controlled marketplace. Rather than relying on job advertisements and keyword matching, the platform uses AI sourcing and agents to interpret hiring briefs and match candidates on skills, behaviours, salary expectations and location, providing explanations for each recommendation. Candidates create free profiles and retain control over whether to accept or decline interview requests from employers, and can hide their profile from specific companies.

The product suite includes Archer, an always-on recruiting agent that finds, qualifies and introduces candidates directly into an employer's applicant tracking system; Archer on-demand for contract and freelance technical hiring with AI plus human screening; Source for engaging verified talent on hard-to-fill or volume roles; Thena for surfacing strong applicants; and Chase, an AI recruiter that sources and qualifies talent automatically. Earlier iterations of the platform offered online assessments, remote interviews, coding challenges, GitHub project uploads, employer branding pages and diversity and inclusion analytics. Matching spans more than 170 role types across over 25 job categories, including software engineering, product, data, design, cloud, security and commercial roles [0][2][3][4][5][7].

Founding story

hackajob was founded in 2014 by Razvan Creanga and Mark Chaffey, who met while studying at King's College London. Creanga, who had previously worked in technology and on his own startups, concluded that technical recruitment could be made more meritocratic by assessing candidates on demonstrated skills rather than CVs alone, and recruited Chaffey to build the company with him. The pair followed a lean startup approach in iterating the product and raised a small angel round in 2014 from an investor who had backed one of Creanga's earlier startups [2][6][7].

Business model

hackajob sells to employers — enterprises and scale-ups — while the platform is free for candidates; the company states that companies pay to use Archer and that there is no premium tier or fee for job seekers. The marketplace model matches employers with candidates from a vetted talent network, with employers reaching out to candidates who can accept or decline [0][2][3].

Employer-paid platform; candidates use the service free of charge. The company reported approximately $10 million in annual recurring revenue at the time of its 2023 Series B [3][6].

Traction

The company reports a talent network of 1.5 million vetted knowledge workers (its investor cites 1M+ tech professionals) and says it connects 70,000 candidates to relevant opportunities each month, converting eight times more applications to interviews than job ads. At the time of the 2023 Series B it reported roughly $10 million in annual recurring revenue, about 500,000 users, 200 paying customers and over 120 employees, and said it had grown its talent pool six-fold in the prior year. Customers cited include the BBC, Comcast, CGI, American Express, Disney, Domino's and Sky [0][2][5][6][7].

Latest developments

The company has repositioned around AI agents, launching Archer, an always-on recruiting agent that sources, qualifies and introduces candidates into employer ATS systems, plus an Archer on-demand offering for contract and freelance technical hiring. Its investor profile also lists Thena, which surfaces the strongest applicants, and Chase, an AI recruiter that sources and qualifies talent automatically [0][2][3].