Canditech, the Israeli startup helping companies accurately assess job candidates with the world’s first online job-simulation platform, today (Thursday) announced that it has raised $9 million in seed funding led by Insight Partners and StageOne Ventures.

Hiring managers have found their saving grace

We have been hearing about the labour shortage Israel's high-tech industry is facing for quite some time now. But startups aren't the only ones having this issue, and it leaves entire companies in scrambles. In today’s world, hiring is not only a challenge faced by the HR team, but also by every manager within a company. The Israeli startup Canditech has come up with a solution to help.

Canditech has created a game-changing solution to the world of hiring. Their solution helps managers achieve their hiring goals by seeing how candidates will do the job, before they get the job, by allowing hiring managers to tailor simulations to their specific roles and invest in the candidates with the highest chance of excelling in the role, using advanced technology that reviews tests objectively and automatically. Canditech bias-free skill assessments can automatically be scored while analyzing an endless amount of data– from technical abilities (code, SQL, Excel, etc.) and soft skills (using video responses and email communication scenarios) – to help the hiring team locate the best candidates in no time. As the co-founders of Canditech stated, “Anyone can write a CV that looks great for a certain role, but only a handful will actually excel in the job. Relying primarily on CVs in the initial screening processes, rather than on the candidate’s qualities and potential, causes organizations to overlook excellent candidates and fall short of recruitment and diversity goals. We believe that an individual’s true skills and their potential to succeed at the role should be prioritized rather than what’s listed on their CV.” Moreover, at the same time, candidates are given the opportunity to “sample” the positions at an early stage in the process, which dramatically reduces the chances for poor hiring decisions and turn-over. So, the solution is a win-win for both the company and its candidates.

In a conversation with Geektime, Canditech’s CEO and co-founder Guy Barel, reassured us that though their solution is extremely technical, the ‘key interview elements’ that often come with the hiring process are not lost. “Canditech's simulations integrate into an organization's existing hiring process. We always emphasize that there's nothing more important than giving personal attention to the candidate, and our simulations won't replace it, but rather the opposite. It's a tool that puts the candidate and his/her skills at the center, instead of his/her resume. In most organizations that work with us, the process does not start with a test right away but begins with a short conversation with the candidate, in which managers can take the time to really get to know the candidates and tell them about the company's experience and the role– instead of trying to figure out how proficient they are in coding or know how to optimize a marketing campaign. During the conversation, the candidates are given the opportunity to showcase their skills through a short and interactive test, which measures their skills and also provides a glimpse into the everyday life at the position – some sort of a day in the company and the work routine. Candidates feel that this method is a better and more correct way to assess their professional potential, compared to dull resumes or long, outdated home tests.”. When looking at the labour shortage Israeli high-tech is facing, Barrel said that this product can help. “We recently received exciting feedback from a data manager at one of the largest gaming companies in the world. He shared that in the past he would only start a recruiting process with candidates who had 3 years of experience in SQL. That obviously limits the pool of applicants and makes hiring more difficult. But today, every candidate who says he/she knows SQL gets a test regardless of their working experience. That way, the company can understand their true abilities, which has actually led to many junior recruits who would not have even given the chance to start the process in the past.”

Helping more and more companies streamline their hiring process

Canditech was founded in 2019 by Guy Barel (CEO), Knaan Braz (Full Stack Developer) and Nir Dovrat (CTO, CBDO). With the new capital, Canditech plans on expanding into new markets and ultimately making the hiring process and overall job experience better for candidates and recruiters alike.