‘Seek for Gen Z’ start-up raises $7m

Traditional CVs are on the way out. AI-powered job matching is in, according to Adam Jacobs and Chaz Heitner, co-founders of The Iconic and Zip Co, respectively, who have raised $7 million for their new start-up, Hatch.

Pitched as “Seek for Gen Z”, Hatch is targeting Gen Z professionals who make up 25 per cent of the workforce but are increasingly shunning job offers from organisations that don’t match their values.

The platform is a decidedly 2020s take on hiring and is looking to disrupt the likes of Seek, which was founded in 1997.

Hatch co-founders Adam Jacobs and Chaz Heitner with investor Taryn Pieterse.Credit: SMH

“Who you hire is 90 per cent of the success of a business,” Jacobs told this masthead.

“I built The Iconic for about nine years, and during that time, I probably interviewed around 2000 people and hired around 600 or 700 people. And what I learned is that what’s on a resume is often misleading … it’s actually someone’s underlying skills and traits that matter.

“Fundamentally, there hasn’t been much innovation in job boards for over 20 years, and while those businesses are big, profitable businesses, they were built in the late 90s and early 2000s, and Gen Z has grown up with a different expectation of the internet.”

Jacobs said he’s looking to disprove the narrative that AI is going to take away Gen Z jobs. Hatch uses AI to take data and analytics and pair young people with roles that fit their personality and what they’re good at.

“AI is here to help people discover jobs,” he said. “It’s reshaping the lives of Gen Z in the way they discover content, create content, get financial advice and how they navigate dating.”

“We’re using modern advances in AI to help young people understand the teams that they’ll be joining and if they’ll be a good values fit, and secondly we help match them to work that fits not just their resume but who they are as an underlying person.”

Jacobs said Hatch had grown 20 per cent month-on-month over the past two years and is now the preferred job platform for young professionals in the first decade of their careers.

The start-up has racked up more than 150,000 candidates and 120 employers, including Domain, Hello Fresh, Uber, Woolworths, and Nine, the publisher of this masthead.

Former Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour.Credit: Elke Meitzel

Jacobs and Heitner have raised $7 million from oversubscribed funding sourced from a range of Australian venture funds, including Rampersand, Alberts Impact Ventures, Aura Ventures, Jelix Ventures and Investible, as well as private investors, including former Latitude and Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour.

Jacobs said the funding round will be used to did not disclose its valuation.

Andrea Gardiner of Jelix Ventures.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“The business wouldn’t exist without Ahmed’s support,” Jacobs said. “He’s been amazing. He was running Australia Post when I was running The Iconic, and that’s how we got to know each other. One day, we were having a cup of tea, and I mentioned I was starting another business, and without missing a beat, he said, ‘I want to be your first investor’.”

“It was super hard to raise last year … It was an unusually challenging environment. People have talked about how challenging it was, but I’d say it was even more challenging than that.

“In the end we did get high-quality investors who took the time to understand the opportunity and have joined us on the journey.”

Fahour told this masthead that his private equity fund was an early investor and was attracted to Hatch due to its sophisticated technology.

“That, combined with incredible entrepreneurs like Adam and Chaz, whom I have known for a long time, is a winning formula,” he said. “In short, I back amazing people and with incredible new-age tech to make a difference to customers and deliver outstanding returns.”

Rampersand investment principal Taryn Pieterse said that Hatch was an example of an Australian start-up using AI to deliver a materially better experience.

“The AI platform that they’re building is really core to their product and makes sure that both potential employees and employers are seeing the cream of the crop,” she said.

“Adam and Chaz, in their previous start-ups, developed tech for the next generation, and they’re always thinking about the customer experience. We see them applying some of those same principles around building a great customer experience at Hatch.

“We believe that matching is going to be key to how every person discovers work in the future.”