AI recruitment startup Jack & Jill raises $20m seed round

Six months after its launch, London-based AI recruitment company Jack & Jill has raised $20 million in seed funding to reinvent how people find jobs and how companies recruit talent.

The round was led by Creandum, the European venture firm behind Spotify and Klarna, with participation from Dig Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Ada Ventures, Firedrop, Repeat.vc, Episode1, Playfair and more than 75 angel investors – including world champion Former Formula 1 racer Nico Rosberg and backers from Lovable, Anthropic and ElevenLabs.

“Jack & Jill is one of the most exciting companies we’ve seen leveraging agentic AI,” said Peter Specht, General Partner at Creandum. “The huge success they have achieved so early on is proving demand in the market. Matthew, Saras and the team are leading a revolution in this industry, and we can’t wait to see their expansion into the US.”

The funding will boost product development, AI infrastructure, and global expansion, with a focus on entering the US market – starting in the San Francisco Bay Area – while deepening operations in London and across Europe.

Founded in early 2025 by Matthew Wilson (CEO) and Saras Meehan (CTO), Jack & Jill was born out of the founders’ frustration with the inefficiency and bias in traditional hiring.

“Imagine a world where every person has their perfect job, and every company has the right people,” Wilson said. “We are a long way from that day. Our mission is to reform employment so that everyone gets world-class support – whether hiring or finding a job.”

Instead of human recruiters, Jack & Jill deploys artificial intelligence agents — “Jack” and “Jill” — who independently talk to people to understand their needs, preferences and skills, and then make personalized matches at scale.

Jack works as a digital career coach, where he conducts audio conversations with professionals to learn about their ambitions, experiences, and skills. It then highlights relevant opportunities that truly align with their goals.

Jill, on the other hand, works with employers. She talks with hiring managers and talent teams to determine what they’re looking for, then searches Jack’s network to identify ideal candidates. Jill’s advantage is scale – it can screen thousands of conversations a day, work faster than human recruiters, and cut costs by up to 50%.

“Recruiters at recruitment agencies are limited by their capabilities, while job boards are inundating companies with unsuitable candidates,” Meehan said. “We’re not automating a broken system, we’re reimagining the hiring process from first principles.”

In just six months, Jack & Jill has integrated into hundreds of high-growth companies in London, through a network of 49,000 vetted professionals. Clients report faster time to hire, higher quality candidates, and significant cost savings compared to traditional recruiting.

The startup’s growth reflects a broader industry shift toward AI-first recruiting platforms, as companies look to reduce inefficiencies and improve diversity and the candidate experience.

Unlike traditional HR technology platforms that rely on static filters or algorithms, the Jack & Jill model uses “agent AI” – autonomous systems capable of making context-aware decisions through conversation. This allows digital recruiters to emulate the nuances of human interaction while scaling to thousands of candidates at a time.

With the new funding, Jack & Jill plans to double its team in London, invest in AI compliance and safety, and expand its global network of employer integrations.

“We are building the most transparent, efficient and humane AI recruitment system in the world,” Wilson added. “We are grateful to have investors who share our vision of making finding the right job – or the right person – as easy as having a conversation.”