Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has backed a London firm looking to transition the recruitment sector’s reliance on CVs to real-world experience using AI.
Ethos is aiming to shift the focus from static credentials to real-world expertise and says traditional platforms capture the wrong data as a CV is just a list of where you’ve been, not what you can actually do.
The company also tackles the problem of fake or AI-generated CVs, which make it harder to confirm a candidate’s real skills.
The firm’s CTO Daniel J. Mankowitz is a former research scientist at Google DeepMind. His co-founder James Lo previously worked in growth and transformation at the SoftBank Vision Fund – he was part of the turnaround team at WeWork during its 2019 IPO collapse – and at McKinsey.
The £17m round was joined by General Catalyst, XTX Ventures, Evantic Capital and Common Magic.
“You are so much more than what AI can automate. Ethos is here to unlock your potential,” Lo wrote on LinkedIn.
“The judgment you’ve built over your career. The instincts that come from having actually done something. The knowledge that lives in your head and nowhere else.
“Ethos uses AI to map your comparative advantage, then match you to paid opportunities across the economy: expert calls, research, AI training, fractional roles, full-time jobs.”
Ethos claims that more than 5,000 professionals – from fields such as accounting, banking, consulting, law, technology, healthcare and skilled trades like electricians and plumbers – are joining the platform each week.
It uses AI to conduct interviews and review candidates’ work – such as academic papers, code and other professional content – to build a profile of their skills before connecting experts with paid opportunities.
Lo says some people on the platform are making $10,000 a week.
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