Swedish startup, Alva Labs, has just raised €11.7 million for its digital hiring tool that helps recruiters qualify and compare job candidates using data-driven candidate assessments. The company has a vision to help generate a bias-free job market.
The round was led by VNV Global with Tomas Linden and other leading investors participating.
Founded in 2017, Alva Labs streamlines the hiring process for both recruiters and applicants by providing data-driven candidate assessments that accurately predict a candidate’s job success and suitability.
Alva Labs’ tests, created by a team of psychometricians, data scientists and talent acquisition experts, combine AI and machine learning with leading psychometrics and organisational psychology. The solution tests across logic and personality, saving recruiters time, money and resources, while also increasing the chances they find the right person for the right job.
The bias-free tool also ensures objectivity, promoting equality in the screening process and increasing diversity in candidates.
It’s estimated that British firms currently hiring at the fastest rate since 2013, Alva Labs’ solution to the systemic problems facing companies and candidates is particularly timely and relevant. Alva Labs has the UK as its primary focus for expansion this year.
Further, replacing employees is a costly business, especially if it’s an employee that’s recently been brought into the team. For businesses to thrive – particularly in the post-pandemic economy – it’s crucial that they hire and retain the best employees.
Alva Labs CEO and Co-founder Malcolm Burenstam Linder commented: “Recruiters are constantly faced with the impossible challenge of knowing what to look for in a job applicant. When individual notions of what is ‘good’ or ‘employable’ about a candidate are applied, the process can fill with unconscious bias and prejudice. Alva Labs provides a solution to this by ensuring objectivity for both recruiters and candidates. This means the right people get the right jobs, which is particularly relevant right now, as the Great Resignation is causing a mass exodus of employees worldwide.”
On average, companies that use Alva Labs assessments are able to whittle down candidate pools to the 10% most relevant and suitable applicants, without having to look at a single CV. Alva Labs’ assessments are also more than twice as accurate in predicting job performance than when only screening CVs.
In 2021 Alva Labs tripled its employee headcount (expanding the team from 20 to 60 employees), increased its candidate pool by 3.5x, and grew its international customer base by 2.5x. The company counts the likes of Deloitte, Northvolt, Voi and Daniel Wellington among its clients.
The money raised will be used to fuel Alva Labs’ international expansion, with particular emphasis on building a world-class UK-based team, product development and modernising the British recruitment sector.
