HR tech startup impress.ai bags S$4m pre-Series A funding

IMPRESS.AI, a startup specialising in enterprise recruitment solutions, has clinched S$4 million in pre-Series A funding led by Summit 29K and joined by Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore.

The funds will be used to expand into new markets such as Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, accelerate product development, increase marketing and attract more talent.

Launched in 2017, impress.ai taps AI (artificial intelligence) chatbots to evaluate job candidates via a series of assessments and assign an overall metric value to each candidate. The startup said that it has thus far served close to 50 enterprises, including DBS, Singtel, ADB and Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

"Moving forward, understanding how to best recruit, utilise and retain talent while working remotely is increasingly becoming a topic of focus. This has resulted in growing business opportunities and interest in how our solution is able to help achieve that," said Sudhanshu Ahuja, chief executive officer and co-founder of impress.ai. The startup said that it has achieved an operational break-even in May 2020.

"The company's performance amidst the tough global economic climate has proven to us just how robust the concept is, and we are very excited to come aboard for this journey and to build the next generation of recruitment solutions," said Mahtani Bhagwandas, director of Summit 29K.

Tan Kaixin, general manager of Seeds Capital, added: "impress.ai is a good example of a Singapore startup that offers an innovative and relevant tech solution that addresses the digital needs of businesses, particularly in today's Covid-19 environment."