Kiku has raised $5.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Kiku's investors include Cherry Ventures, Concept Ventures, Felipe Navio, Fredrik Hjelm, Juan Urdiales.
Kiku is a Copenhagen-based AI recruitment startup founded in 2024 that builds a mobile-first platform automating high-volume, frontline hiring for sectors like retail, logistics, sales, healthcare, and hospitality.[1][2][3] It serves companies needing to hire at scale and mobile-first, multilingual candidates, solving the problem of manual, inefficient processes like clunky forms and pre-recorded videos by using a conversational AI agent named "Sara" for sourcing, screening, interviewing, and shortlisting.[1][2][3] Kiku has raised €4.5M total funding, including a €4M seed round in 2025 led by Cherry Ventures with Yellow VC and angels like Fredrik Hjelm and Felipe Navio, enabling product development, team growth, and European expansion; it already operates in the Nordics, UK, and US, saving recruiters over 15 hours per role while achieving 93% candidate satisfaction and 88% screenings within 24 hours.[1][2][3]
Kiku was founded in 2024 by CEO Eric André and CTO Rasmus Andersen, both with deep experience in scaling tech operations.[1][2] André, drawing from his time at micromobility leader Voi where he helped grow the team from 20 to 200 across the Nordics—hiring hundreds of frontline workers annually—identified the pain of legacy systems failing mobile-first, multilingual workforces, inspiring Kiku's people-first AI approach.[1][2] Early traction came quickly post-angel round, with the €4M seed just four months later, proving demand as "Sara" now conducts thousands of structured interviews weekly in any language via chat or voice.[1][2][3]
Kiku rides the AI-driven HR transformation trend, targeting the overlooked frontline hiring market amid labor shortages in operations-heavy sectors and a shift to mobile, multilingual workforces.[1][2] Timing aligns with post-pandemic scale needs and AI maturity for autonomous agents, as legacy ATS fail modern expectations—Kiku proves speed and quality coexist, influencing ecosystems by boosting talent pipelines in Nordics/UK/US and expanding Europe-wide.[1][2] It counters bias and inefficiency, enabling fairer hiring at volume and setting a model for AI in "humanity-preserving" recruitment.[2]
Kiku's momentum—€4.5M funding, proven metrics, and multi-market traction—positions it to dominate frontline AI hiring as adoption grows.[1][2] Next steps include team expansion, deeper European launches, and enhanced "Sara" features amid rising AI agent demand in HR; trends like multilingual scaling and regulatory pushes for fair AI will propel it, potentially evolving into a full-stack talent platform influencing global ecosystems.[1][3] From redefining manual drudgery, Kiku scales quality hiring forward.[1]
Kiku has raised $5.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $5.0M Seed in July 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2025 | $5.0M Seed | Cherry Ventures, Concept Ventures, Felipe Navio, Fredrik Hjelm, Juan Urdiales |
