Manchester-based HR startup urfuture has raised £1.7m in seed investment as it looks to replace CVs and job boards with tech solutions for the AI era.
River Capital led the investment, with participation from SyndicateRoom’s Access fund, Manchester Angels, Fhunded, Solid Bond, Host Capital and a number of sector specialist angels.
The investment comes as the number of young people aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training approaches one million.
The problem is being compounded as 45 per cent of job seekers now use AI to help write or edit their CVs, meaning employers are increasingly overwhelmed with high volumes of low-quality, irrelevant applications.
Urfuture was founded in Preston and moved to Manchester at the start of the year.
urfuture appoints 22-year-old founder as chief growth officer
The startup is building a new hiring platform that combines a social-first Gen Z distribution engine with a proprietary behavioural science job matching algorithm.
This enables employers to identify higher-intent, more diverse candidates and reduce hiring bias, making fairer hiring decisions.
160m social views
Since launching in August, urfuture has hit 50,000 downloads and generated over 160 million social views, positioning the company as one of the fastest-growing Gen Z careers platforms in the UK.
At the same time, urfuture has built one of the fastest-growing datasets in the country focused on entry-level hiring intelligence, with 2.4 million behavioural data points collected through its matching platform.
Employers including West Midlands Police, Tesco, British Airways and Electricity North West are already using the platform to attract and assess early-career talent.
Early results show significant improvements in hiring outcomes.
Urfuture was founded by CEO Tom Keighley, whose work in the talent space dates back to 2011, alongside COO Jayel Williams and CCO Holly Hobbs.
Keighley said: “The UK is rightly focused on how to get more young people earning or learning, but the infrastructure between education and employment is still broken.
“CVs don’t work for entry-level talent, job boards don’t reach this generation, and AI has made application volume harder to manage while reducing quality.
“We’re rebuilding that system from first principles, combining social distribution, behavioural science and AI to create a fairer, more effective way to connect young people to work.
“Our ambition is to become the front door to employment for the next generation.”
Urfuture has also caught the attention of PM Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves as the government looks to tackle rising youth unemployment.
David Walters, investment director at River Capital, said: “We are pleased to announce our investment in urfuture, a platform addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing the UK today: supporting young people in making informed career choices.
“At a time when youth unemployment is rising sharply, particularly among 16 to 21-year-olds, the need for accessible, high-quality career guidance has never been greater.
“Urfuture is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap, providing a scalable and engaging solution that empowers young people to explore entry-level roles, apprenticeships and longer-term career pathways.
“The platform enables direct connections between candidates and employers through its app-based ecosystem, opening up opportunities that might otherwise remain out of reach.
“By combining intuitive technology with a clear social mission, urfuture is helping to reshape how early-career talent is discovered and developed.
“We have been particularly impressed by the strength and vision of the founding team, Tom, Jayel and Holly, whose deep commitment to improving outcomes for young people is evident throughout the business.”
The funding will be used to accelerate product development, including the launch of its white-labelled behavioural profiling and screening infrastructure, designed to significantly reduce manual screening time for employers.